Disgusted by the BBC (Taiwan & Ukraine)

I'd like to bring a heart warming post this Easter Monday; but I can't... Instead I just sat down and listened to the 1 o'clock news by the BBC and I'm shocked, annoyed and disgusted by their describing Taiwan as a "self governing province".

Taiwan is a country in it's own right!  I admit a fall out of the Chinese civil war, but the BBC describing Taiwan so is like my British head calling the Republic of Ireland a "Self Governing Province"... or Canada, or New Zealand, or Australia.  It would simply not be tolerated.

And I think this narrative can only be for one purpose, to placate Beijing!

I say, this Chinese exercise to "encircle Taiwan" is illegal, should be utterly condemned, not just in the strongest words but by physical action to see them off.

And whilst I'm at it, the same rhetoric left to the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine and I can only express my opinion that the west needs to stop with the words and act.

A warmonger I am happy to be called, if just one person retains their own self determined liberty, and that is what is at stake with Russian in Eastern Europe, and with China as a whole.  Countries led by literal megalomaniacs, unlike  me who hold the free world hostage!

Is is Filmable? Red-Storm Rising

I've often asked this question "is it filmable", such as the age old argument that the Lord of the Rings was not filmable before Peter Jackson proved that theory wrong... Sort of (cough).

So what don't I think is filmable?  Well, the Tom Clancy novel "Red Storm Rising".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Storm_Rising

I really like this book, I read it every couple of years and get really engrossed in the concept of what a war in the Europe of my youth would have been actually like.

Remember, I'm a kid who played on the beaches of Skegness (in the UK) when A10 Warthogs were flying low over the coastline in dummy strafing runs, we could find spent 50'cal bullets (metal and a stone line practice bullet too) from their activities and we read up avidly about the new to service Tornado jet.

I have a vivid and expectant concept of that that war might have been, everything from blistering nuclear instant death, to a lingering radioactive malaise, to the starvation induced strangling of Britain's sea-trade by the Red menace.

We all know it never came to pass, but this novel visualizes it, you get the interspersed stories from a single tank commander, to the infantry on the ground, A10 pilots are mentioned and the desperate struggle of the high-seas as well as the personal impact on civilians on Iceland.

Could it ever be filmed?  Certainly the CG is out there to allow it, and perhaps convincingly, so technically yes this story could be told on screen.

The question therefore is should it be made?  With the current resurgence in an autocratic mind-set from Russian voters you could argue that the days gone-by of the Soviet regime are actually echo'd on the streets of Moscow today, but that feeling is tempered a much more cosmopolitan mixing of peoples and business, even organised crime.  All completely change the social-political landscape of Russia.

What was once a far-away distant disturbing land, is still very far away and still disturbing, but it's far far less distant, we can all connect to Russian news, feel the pulse of Russian politics.  We all even watched their invasion (yes I'm afraid I sit on the fence of it being an invasion) of the Crimea, literally taking it from Ukraine.

A moment of pride to some I'm sure, but a sign of things to come?  Maybe, I never felt that was a war which would go hot, I don't think anyone in the west had the stomach for a war with Russia, submarines off the coast of Sweden, incursions into Ukraine and the murder of airline passengers all passed without serious repercussions.

But you film Red Storm Rising, you put that story out there, from the perspective given in the book.  I think that would get serious repercussion and denounced in the Russian press as scare mongering, I really do.

That's why its unfilmable, because Russia.

World Cup 2018 Group First Leg Predictions

Before all the Octopi, Squirrels, Cow-Pat Bingo and whatever else gets rolled out for the Football (yes, not Soccer folks) World Cup in Russia I thought I'd give you my game by game predictions... It might be worth an accumulator?  But you may just find lots of my own personal bias.

Group stage - First 16 Games Predicted...

Game 1:  Russia v Saudi Arabia - Russia 2 to nil, as hosts I think they stand a real chance to put a stamp on the game.

Game 2: Egypt v Uruguay - Egypt 1, Uruguay 1 - I feel that Egypt have some talent for them and this will over arch Uruguay's historic tenacity.

Game 3: Morocco v Iran - Morocco 1, Iran 0 - This is a pretty even match in my opinion, however, I believe Morocco will pip it.

Game 4: Portugal v Span - Portugal 1, Spain 2 - Very hard to pull this one, it's going to either see lots of goals or not very many, but I'm going to edge Spain over the Portuguese as they'll want to put a mark on the score card against their regional adversaries after the Spanish turmoil of 2017.

Game 5: France v Australia - France 2, Australia 0 - I'm sorry to say I don't think this'll go anywhere except France's way, Aussie still rules!

Game 6: Argentine v Iceland - Iceland 1, Argentina 0 - As the chap whom has helped save the wife's life from cancer is Icelandic, I'm voting with my heart and my hopes.

Game 7: Peru v Denmark - Denmark 2, Peru 0 - I've got to say the Danish will enjoy this one, with no real rivalry on the international stage I can only say this may feel like one of those  wonderful friendly world-cup matches.

Game 8: Croatia v Nigeria - Croatia 1, Nigeria 1 - I think things maybe slightly swayed on the Croat side, but Nigeria squad isn't to be sniffed at, pulling things even.

Game 9: Costa Rica v Serbia - Serbia 2, Costa Rica 0 - One of those one-sides group matches, but I believe the Costa Ricans won't let the Serbs have it all their own way.

Game 10: Germany v Mexico - Germany 3, Mexico 1 - My git feeling is of course for German dominance, however I don't think Mexico will let it go into a Teutonic slide.

Game 11: Brazil v Switzerland - Brazil 2, Switzerland 0 - Very one sides I'm afraid, though I think the Swiss will play good structured football.

Game 12: Sweden v South Korea - Sweden 2, South Korea 1 - I actually think this maybe nil nil in the full-time mark, but if I'm taking my head at true value Sweden should pull through.

Game 13: Belgium v Panama - Belgium 2, Panama 0 - The Belgians, if they can hang together as a team, will walk over the tiny Panama offering, however it'll again be a friendly feeling game.

Game 14: Tunisia v England - England 1, Tunisia 0 - We English will probably cock this up mightily, giving everyone at home heart failure to just about pull a head.  However, if the English score early they'll go off the boil; as we always do; and there's potential for a real upset.

Game 15: Colombia v Japan - Colombia 2, Japan 1 - I think the Japanese will play well, however can they over come the South American side?.... I'm not certain.

Game 16: Poland v Senegal - Poland 1, Senegal 2 - I think the African side will push up forcing the Poles to equalise, but there'll be a last minute push from one or the other, I'm very split on this it may go even, but ultimately I think it'll be down to whom is most hungry.

That's the end of the first match in the Group Stages from me, more will follow...

Mother Russia....

Добрый вечер

Dobriy vyecher

Good evening

I have so many viewers from Russia at the moment, I thought I'd say a big hello to you all... How are you all navigating here folks?  Do let me know.

I see some served in from Yandex, some from pages on Reddit, however the vast majority of Russian based viewer stats are just direct references, so somewhere my pages are clearly syndicating...

BTW, I'm pushing 11,000 viewers a month now folks!  Combined with passing the 1000 post mark this is a glorious place for me to be in! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

History of Sexual Violence During World War 2

Maybe I'm being a revisionist, maybe I'm reading or learning history different to others, maybe I'm just wiser or perhaps, and I suspect this to be the truth, the journalist who created this report, and the supposed masses who are ignorant of sexual crimes during and especially in Berlin at the end of World War 2 are just ignoring the obvious.

I'm talking about this report from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32529679

It talks about Soviet troops raping and assaulting Nazi German women, we'll make the distinction that they were still Nazi's and as the report itself says "in the west German suffering was ignored due to the guilt for Nazi crimes", and crimes they were.

The wrath, pillage and rape of Soviet citizens was widely known, and understood, I was taught about it and in learning about World War 2, and the waves of troops following Operation Barbarossa it was generally understood to me, by my teachings, that the Germans were animalistic and treated the Soviet and sub-humans, and that included raping and killing the women and children.

I had read an account of a German officer on the Volga front who was "only interested in a little buggery", so whilst his troops had the farm wife and teen age daughter, he took the 7 year old boy to the barn... "All were killed later by the unterfeldwebel, who took great delight in stabbing their necks and holding them up by their hair as the life drained out of them" the account read, I remember reading this at around 12 year of age, it chilled me to the bone... What are people actually learning now-a-days?... Only of the heroic struggle?... Only of the Combat of Arms?  Only what Call of Duty teaches them?

The rape of German women, was not ignored, indeed there is an interviewee in the Thames Television series "The World At War", a German man named Friedrich Luft; a Berliner, and he explains how when the Red Army came (38m20 on wards) other members of the house hid whilst he lead the Soviet soldiers to two dead women's bodies from another flat... he explains, "I told them these are my women, our only women, in their broken German, or what they called German, they gave me condolences, but then moved onto the next house to get what they wanted there".

It always struck me more how condescending, about the Russians ability to speak German, and how lacking of guilt for the whole war that German man was... He comes across as a complete arsehole... But it never struck me as he was revealing a dark secret in the rape of Berlin, it was common knowledge, the status-quo.

The essence of the problem with German and Soviet peoples being ravaged of course is that, there are reports both German and Soviet forces pillaged and dismembered Poland in 1939, wind forward to 1945 the allies in the West were fighting the Axis alongside the Soviets, so the pall of guilt lies heavy over the honour of the victory gained.

It's clear in the post war Soviet Block talk of Soviet forces committing such crimes were forbidden, but why not talk of it now?  Is this another one of those Russian idiosyncrasies that they can't face?

I find many computer games made by today's, or even my, generation of Russian (War Thunder being a good example) have a very rosy idea of how the second world was was conducted... 

This is a very interesting ideal of what was going on, and is reflected in the game with the performance and action of the "Russian" aka Soviet vehicles...  If we spin into the "Making of" blog post...

"we worked with a British studio, veterans of video trailer production. Together with them, we have created one of the most successful trailers referencing the military. But the British have their own history and their own view on the Second World War and we, the descendants of our Soviet heroes had our own war and own memories of it"

And it seems, certainly sexually, for the "honour" of the Soviet soldiers sake yes, Yes Russia you do have a different view of the Second World War, and it seems; like in Germany; it's slightly too far through rose tinted glasses.

BBC - History - Russia - Auschwitz - Remember

The lack of copy and proof reading with the BBC is getting annoying now, I've pointed things out to them, I've blogged about them, but we're down to basic bad copy now, as a journalist I think your first order of merit should be to write coherent text, which can only be scanned one way... The moment your words could be interpreted two ways you've failed in your job of clearly communicating.

Here's an example, from a BBC blog about the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz...

See it... "Dozens of the Nazi killers at Auschwitz escaped justice after the war"... That can be read two ways... That there are dozens of killers whom were Nazi's who escaped being brought to justice... Or that there are dozens who killed Nazi's who escaped justice...

I know, and I presume most of you know the history, so we know the writer intends to mean that the Nazi's were the killers and they escaped, but history teaching, cultural differences and the sheer number of holocaust deniers might want to read that differently.

I personally knew a British Solider whom was part of the very first units to get to Belsen, I saw the look in his eye as he described what he saw, I do not deny the Holocaust, I hold it up as the biggest crime ever, EVER, committed, a crime which cuts through divides and should unit all people to resolve never to let something like that happen again.

But then I meet kids now who don't know it happened, that don't know who ran the countries, I've heard kids who know the name Hitler, but they associate the name more strongly with caricatures in computer games, they find it hard to realise the dark days Europe went through, the dark days which my grandparents gave their youth to abate.

And we read of parts of the world where there is conflict today, even driven - as the holocaust was - in part or in full by religion, and one has to question what is the point, why fight?

There are extremists from all over, Islamic, Christian, Orthodox, then there are extreme wings of politics, and it all leads back to a lack of context, you can fight and maim and attack today, but should you?... If you and your family, your country, your people had been ravaged by true horror, would you?

In the Ukraine, Russians do not want to remember the Great Patriotic war's beginnings, they did not until recently acknowledge they had murdered Polish officers when they sided with Nazi Germany and invaded Poland, the history is brushed under the carpet.  Just as it is with the cock-eyed Russians running into Ukraine, a whole other sovereign country, and declaring they are fighting to restore their country.

No, no you're not, you've forgotten the horror, and turmoil thrown up nearing a century ago by one World War and then another, you've got no back story, no history, perhaps only propaganda.

And propaganda has been seen to be journalism tainted with a strong bias, so journalism has a lot to answer for, and the least it could do it write coherently on matters of import.

Pissed Okay, Tranny No Way...?

Yes this is hot news, Russia has decided that if you're a Transexual or Transgender, which are regarded in society here as normal states or conditions, which people struggle with and which people over come and live perfectly normal lives throughout... But Russia has decided being a chick with a dick, or a bloke wanting a fanny means you can't drive...

I wonder if they'll do away with all the ARM chips they use over there, since Sophie Wilson, the venerable creator of that technology, one of the creators of the BBC Micro in fact would be classified as not being able to drive in Russia (her having been born Roger Wilson).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30735673

It just makes me a little bit sick, I've seen video (mostly dashboard cam footage) of Russian traffic accidents, you can see 90% of them include ludicrous idiocy and vodka whilst the other 10% are just Ice & Snow related... Never have I seen a tranny (with or without fanny) crash in one of these videos, but I've seen many skin-head types jump out and brawl, I've seen many farmer looking lumps hiccup and spill empty Vodka bottles over the road.

No, Russia is just getting strange now, and I have to say it reflects the mind of that megalomaniac moron Putin, it really does.

Hey Putin, you're nuts, just for the record.

All this from a Russia conducting a covert War in the Ukraine...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30739110

WarThunder - Gaijin's Russian Bias Shows Doesn't It.

Last night I went for a few flights in various BF109's in WarThunder... It was an utter and total disaster, I didn't make a single air kill, and twice ended up getting bounced whilst in the middle of my dive on a target and having to try and flee.  And only once did my attempt to flee and calling for help get a return from my team mates... So my thanks to those chaps that time, you kicked arse...

However, after a couple of hours I had my BF109E-3, BF109F-1 & 2, BF109F-4 and BF109F-4/trop all in repairs... My frustration was palpable.

I reviewed my replays, I thought about what I was doing wrong, and I thought about my opponents... Some of them were just excellent pilots and out flew me, I accept that, however, I looking at the roster of opponents who had shot me down... La-5... La-5.... Hmmm... La-5..... I-185... There were a lot of higher battle rating (BR) opponents than my measily E-3 or F-2 (the two planes I flew repeatedly)...

Now I'm no fool, my aircraft handling though not perfect is okay and in Simulated Battle you expect an amount of luck, but my luck was running so bad.  I switched to Realistic Battle, maybe I could identify what I was doing wrong by seeing the target tags coming towards me...

I could not see any tags... I don't know if this is a feature now, or something about skills, or just a bug... But I had to close to within 1km of a target dot before I got to see its label text... and when friendlies were tangling with enemy planes I saw the blue of the friendly from miles, but never saw the enemy... Tracers and flame and death, I saw plenty of, but actual aircraft/player legend text, not a jot of it...

So at one point I'm in the F-4, and I'm 800 meters above a pair of La-5's... I know I'm going to die, so I invert, pull through a half loop, and when out of the loop I'm the right way up going to opposite direction at about 550km/h... And I accelerate away, I'm going maybe 580km/h, and I reckon I'm around 10km away from where I saw the targets, I'm low on ammo anyway, and 7 minutes of fuel, so I report heading to base.

I check my shoulder, just as a stream of red tracer goes past... both La-5's are right there... they've climbed 750ish meters and caught up over 10km from behind a plane going away from them at over 550km/h... I dive away from them and am going 715km/h, opening the distance between us... But their fire is hell accurate, I can see the separation on the mini-map its over 800 meters between us, but they're still shooting...

These are La-5's... with twin 20mm cannon, their cannon should be dry>?!>?! What the hell... I lead them off and over the airfield, they break off only when the AA has holed one... but as I break into a rising climb turning my now 600km/h speed into about 900 meters of altitude and levelling off to assess my situation, the other LA-5 does what can only be described as a UFO move, it rolls and almost flat spins around and comes back at me, acceleration was incredible, the aircraft was level with me, having used his speed to climb... and he's flying straight and level.... over 8km... be cross the airfield and forced me into a split-S to avoid his head on in what felt like 10 seconds... I literally had no come-back.

When we read historical accounts of the performance of the La-5 it does not stand up to the scrutiny of its performance in game, I get that Gaijin have their own ideals of history, they say as much in one of their news posts:

"the British have their own history and their own view on the Second World War and we, the descendants of our Soviet heroes had our own war and own memories of it" - WarThunder Blog.

You don't have memories young sir, you are not over 80 years old and were of an age to have served, your parents at a push, or your grandparents certainly may have, but you do not have memories.  What you have are recollections, those rosey tinted, glossy postcard photograph ideas of what it was like.  And I can only really stress that in my opinion the balance of plane performance, especially Russian plane performance, is rather more rosey than it should be according to the history at hand.

"the La-5FN excelled at altitudes below 3,000 m (9,843 ft) but suffered from short range and flight time of only 40 minutes at cruise engine power. All of the engine controls (throttle, mixture, propeller pitch, radiator and cowl flaps, and supercharger gearbox) had separate levers which served to distract the pilot during combat to make constant adjustments or risk suboptimal performance. For example, rapid acceleration required moving no less than six levers. In contrast, contemporary German aircraft, especially the BMW 801 radial-engined variants of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 front line fighter, had largely automatic engine controls with the pilot operating a single lever and electromechanical devices, like the Kommandogerät pioneering engine computer on the radial-engined Fw 190s, making the appropriate adjustments. Due to airflow limitations, the engine boost system (Forsazh) could not be used above 2,000 m (6,562 ft). Stability in all axes was generally good. The authority of the ailerons was deemed exceptional but the rudder was insufficiently powerful at lower speeds. At speeds in excess of 600 km/h (370 mph), the forces on control surfaces became excessive. Horizontal turn time at 1,000 m (3,281 ft) and maximum engine power was 25 seconds." - 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavochkin_La-5

Or perhaps

"In comparison with the Bf 109 the La-5FN possessed a slightly higher roll rate, however the Bf-109 was slightly faster and had the advantages of a smaller turn radius and higher rate of climb." - Hans-Werner Lerche (ISBN 0531037118)

Even ignoring the performance issues, why was my BF109F4 being pitted against La-5's?... The F series of 109 was ubiquitous yes, but in 1942 when the F4 was really at its height the La-5 was still under development:

"from the first tests, which began toward the end of March 1942, it became clear that the new variant was a marked improvement over the basic model" - about the LA-5 from www.century-of-flight.net.

The timeline does not work out, the La-5 should not have been present to shoot me down perhaps?... But its UFO like performance is clearly not warranted from the history.

I know already what Gaijin's response would be, if they dained to give one, and that would be that this is a BETA, and that things can change, but I believe for too long and too many comparisons; which I have been through; the Russians get the better of it over the Americans, the Americans get the better of over the Japanese and the Germans generally struggle to compete save when we get to the very highest tiers.

The BF109F series under-perform, the accepted best aerobatically able 109's and they're pitted against floating Russian crates which historically were not overly available*, the BF109G series are often forced to fight off of their comfort zone, i.e. the BF109G-6 designed to intercept bombers is pushed into dogfights with other fighters, where its climb/weight disadvantage soon tell...

To then rub salt into already open wounds I flew out in a Russian plane, in simulated mode, for the first time ever, took the Yak-7 which was completely stock out for a fly out... Immediately entered a low-level dogfight and in both the horizontal and vertical could out turn and out perform German BF109F1's and an FW190A-1... And got two kills!.... I gave up playing for the night right there, disgusted how easy the kills were, when ammunition, aiming and the general low-tech of the Yak-7, a trainer pushed back into front-line service, bested some of the finest fighter aircraft the Luftwaffe fielded.

* Losses of La-5's in 1942 dropped dramatically, this wasn't because the La-5's were doing well, but that so few La-5 were produced that there were none-left for the jagdflieger to shoot down, only in 1943 as production ramped back up did losses increase in relation ship to the number of available aircraft.  This is the kind of history ignored by Gaijin and their apparent blanket rosey tinted view of history.

Protesticles

I just watched a video of a chap protesting in Red Square Moscow... By nailing his testicles to the cobbles....

No, I'm not joking, apparently he nailed them to the cobbles... The strangely blurred out (I can't think why video) can be seen here.