10min 18sec clip - Real Medieval War Stories That Sound Made Up

4min 49sec clip - over 50 Years of the War on Drugs

3min 56sec clip - The Beginning and End of the War in Afghanistan

The Conservative Party's "blame it on" culture war strategy for the next election

In politics the playbook of blaming others for what is wrong with our country is as old as the hills.  Sadly it still appears to work.  The tactic basically goes like this: 

1) remind people of an imaginery ast when all was rosy; 

2) pick out a group of people and/or some institutions to blame for why things aren't good now; 

3) suggest we should be afraid of the menace from these people/institutions; 

4) say you'll be tough on them to counter their menace to our way of life.  

This morning an interviewee on a radio programme illustrated how this playbook will probably be used in the next UK General Election.

The BBC's Radio 4 Today news programme this morning had a slot on twitter comments by Gary Lineker, (former footballer, popular UK sport TV presenter), comparing UK Government ministers language on migrants with the language used in the 1930's in Germany.

Given Gary's position as a prominent star presenter at the BBC, the Today programme asked Richard Eyre, a former BBC Controler of Editorial Policy, and former BBC Trustee, for his view on whether Gary should have tweeted what he did.

In giving his view Richard highlighted in a startingly clear manner the probable culture war strategy the Conservative party has for the next general election.  Here is what he said

" You can almost sense ... the start of a Government strategy - re-energise disallusioned Brexit voters, blame continuing immigration on lawyers like Kier Starmer (leader of the Labour Party opposition in the UK), blame it on the Supreme Court, blame it on, better still, the European Court of Human Rights, blame it on the Refugee Convention, blame it on woke media, blame it on woke metropolitan elites".  

So at least now, if you heed his insight, you'll recognise this specific blame playbook when its rolled out

Ukraine - Hindsight is a wonderful thing

On 25/2/22 headline like that above were all over the newspapers. So, with the benefit of hindsight, what lessons have we learnt after a year of war in Ukraine? 

1) Not responding robustly to territory annexatiions is never a good idea. 

2) If you get more than 15% of a particular energy or food source from one country be worried - particularly if their government is autocratic. 

3) A miltary force without cheap drone capability and/or with a more hierarchical rather than network biased command structures is in trouble. 

4) Without satellite internet provision many of your basic information networks are vulnerable to landline compromises. 

5) Documenting atrocities and collecting evidence is a long game that will eventually pay off. 

6) Be courageous and visible on social media in a no nonsence kind of way. 

7) Call out false flag accusations from agressors as indicators of what they are about to do to you. 

8) Enable your citizens to take easy steps to support those under attack. 

9) Autocratic aggressor governments silence disent in their citizens via patriotic disinformation and violence - countering such is never easy.

10) Economic and individual movement sanctions are a long term game.

4min 28sec clip - Why News of WAR Hijacks Your Brain!

He understood the fundementals of war ....

 "He understood the fundamentals of war – that soldiers must be trained before they can fight, fed before they can march, and relieved before they are worn out. He understood that front-line commanders should be spared responsibilities in rear, and that soundness of organization and administration is worth more than specious short cuts to victory" (William Slim on General Giffard from "Defeat Into Victory: (Pan Military Classics Series)" 

4min 18sec clip - simulation for a plausible escalating war between the United States and Russia using realistic nuclear force postures, targets and fatality estimates

found via a digg email

text from youtube "Our team developed a simulation for a plausible escalating war between the United States and Russia using realistic nuclear force postures, targets and fatality estimates. It is estimated that there would be more than 90 million people dead and injured within the first few hours of the conflict.

For more, see https://sgs.princeton.edu/the-lab/plan-a

A collaboration with Alex Wellerstein (http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com) and Jeff Snyder (https://music.princeton.edu/people/jeff-synder) "

2min 20sec british #movietone clip - Six-Day War Begins in the Middle East - #1967 - Today In History

On June 5, 1967, war erupted in the Mideast as Israel raided military aircraft parked on the ground in Egypt; Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.

6min #DUST sci-fi short - The New politics

"The New Politics" by Joshua Wong - Make Games, Not War

2min 33sec @theeconomist clip - #War is in decline, but for how long?

Text from youtube "One hundred years after the end of the first world war, battle-related deaths have fallen worldwide. But flashpoints remain and new threats are looming."

2min 20sec british #movietone clip - Six-Day War Begins in the Middle East - #1967 - Today In History

On June 5, 1967, war erupted in the Mideast as Israel raided military aircraft parked on the ground in Egypt; Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.

4min 10sec @TheEconomist clip - How to #prosecute suspected #war #criminals

Text from youtube "Luis Moreno Ocampo, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has prosecuted some of the world's most notorious warlords and presidents. Here he reveals how he did it."

1 min 12sec @wef clip - #War cost $13 6 #trillion last year .....

#infographic on surviving the #apocalypse ( 10 of - skynet, zombie, war, plague, slump, super volcano, end of days, asteroid, climate, aliens )

TargetSportsUSA.com found via mentalfloss

#remembrance and #poppies

Some complain that they see an overwhelming pressure to wear a red poppy in the UK

- on those in the public sight - business leaders, newsreaders, shop assistants

- and by association the rest of us



Maybe that's because wearing a poppy is interpreted wrongly 

as been a symbol that the wearer is a supporter of all past wars or any current one



But of course that isn't really what is true. 

People wear poppy's - or not - for different reasons:


- to remember to take time to simply remember;

- to remember those who reminded us of the humanity of our enemies;

- to remember our mates or family or parents or grandparents or ancestors killed in service;

- to remember the civilians who were killed;

- to remember the extra-ordinary courage people showed;

- to remember that war should always be the last resort not the first;

- to remember the courage of those in service doing their bit to protect others;

- to remember the vast numbers of those killed in war and the cost to those who survived;

- to remember the leaders who steadied nerves, told us truths and who saved lives;

- to remember that political and military blunders led to many deaths;

- to remember in the 2 minutes silence all of the above and none and more;

- and that we will remember them.

with #socialmedia you don't get both sides of the story - #Israel, #Gaza, War & Data - 4 take-a-ways

#124038994 / gettyimages.com

These points are summarised from a really useful article by @gilgul which I found via #NSMNSS.  Rush over to the original article to get the full richness of all the insights plus.some cool graphics.


In a conflict one - and often both sides:


1) rarely uses their social and other media to mention at all, or very prominently, incidents detrimental to the image of their side that they want to foster;


2) portray media they perceive (or which are) against them as being one sided or biased or irrational;


3) are helped by the fact that with social media feeds are personalised to your own interests so you won't get both sides of a news story in your feed

- for ad revenue maximising reasons most social media sites use algorithms designed to put on our feed items similar to those we click on or follow - so when it comes to news items we similarly get a stream of posts biased to those positions we've already clicked on or followed

- see this post for more on this issue of social media and search bias

- In case you think this is a particular fault of social media - its something we do all the time when we select what traditional media to consume or who to be friends with (confirmation and in group bias - for more see this post)


4) are also helped by the fact that we are far more likely to pass on posts that represent our values and those of our connections - thus reinforcing the point above.  Put bluntly most of us tend to talk to people like ourselves

the #art of #war movie

found via bigbible