Powers and Thrones, by Dan Jones, copyright 2021. 636 pages

 The middle ages run from 500 AD to 1500 AD in round numbers.  Historians will say medieval times start with the deposition of the last Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476.  And I might say they end with Columbus in 1492.  The 500 to 1500 is close and easier to remember. 

 The first section of the book discusses the Roman Empire with emphasis on things passed down to medieval times like Christianity.  Jones misses a few points.  He does mention that the Romans controlled all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea.  He fails to point out that control of all the shorelines allowed the Romans to eliminate piracy in the Mediterranean.  Pirates need ports in which to refill their water casks, restock their provisions, and sell their loot.  When every port has a Roman governor with legionnaires to back him up, pirates have a problem.  So big a problem as to put them out of business.  Removing the pirate threat boosts the Roman economy since in those days everything was shipped by water. 

  Another interesting fact.  There is a histogram of Mediterranean ship wrecks over time.  The number of shipwrecks is proportional to the amount of shipping.  The histogram shows shipwrecks at a low level until maybe 100 BC.  It grows rapidly to a peak right around the time of Augustus Caesar.  Then it starts down.  By Constantine’s time we only have a quarter of the shipwrecks we had in Augustus’ time, which means Constantine only had a quarter of the commerce to tax as Augustus had.  Jones makes no mention of this histogram.  Either he didn’t know of it, or he didn’t think it relevant. 

 

Russian Video of tanks pulling back from Ukraine Border.

I watched the video.  It shows a couple of unfamiliar diesel engines, Russian design and manufacture perhaps.  Followed by a lot of flat cars.  Each flat car has one tank loaded onto it.  The video view is at pretty long range for a side of the train shot.  The train goes thru a steel arch bridge.  The bridge steel is all pink, a very unusual color for a steel bridge.  No rivets showing.

   I thought the whole video clip looked like a model train layout.  

Things must be getting tight in the car business.

 I came out of Walmart the other day and found someone had left a note in my car, offering to buy it.  My car is a 2005, 17 years old, a couple of rust spots, and a front bumper trim piece held together with duct tape.  Not what I would call a really good looking car.  

Maybe that semiconductor shortage the newsies keep talking about is getting really bad and Detroit just isn't shipping many new cars 'cause the cars won't work without those semiconductors.  Makes you wonder about car companies that allow themselves to become dependent upon something that they don't make them selves, or at least have a US supplier for. 

Supply chain is breaking again

 Stopped by Wallymart for catfood.  Last time I scored a 40 can carton of Friskies.  This time all I got was 4 cans for Friskies and 3 plastic containers of something else.  Cat eats two cans a day, so I only have a few days of food for Stupid Beast. 

Land lines are not what they used to be

 The phone rings.  I get out of my chair and answer it.  Sometimes I get dead air.  Sometimes I get a sales pitch so broken up by flaky caller's phone as to not be understandable.  Sometimes I get a foreign accent so thick that I cannot under stand it.  Sometimes I get a weak voice that mumbles and I hang up. 

   You would think the buyers of this advertising would do a little quality control and shape up the worst offenders.  They are paying for each call placed, not whether the call sells any product for them. 

What happens in Ukraine?

On the Russian side we have

1. A whacking big Russian army, and some Russian navy, camped out, in the snow, on Ukraine’s borders.  It would just take a telephone call from Putin to get them moving into Ukraine.  That’s at least twice, maybe more, the size of the Ukrainian army. 
2. Putin has the Germans, and plenty of other European countries almost hooked up to enough Russian natural gas to heat all their homes and run all their electric plants.  Putin knows (or he ought to know) that the Germans need that gas and will do a lot to keep the pipeline deal going, even if the Americans want to shut it down.
3. He knows Biden is mostly out of it, and even in his better days was not very brave, and will do nearly anything to avoid conflict.
4. It’s probably up to Putin alone, if he thinks invasion of Ukraine won’t cost too much he will do it.  If he thinks it will hurt Russia he won’t do it.  Unless we have another Oleg Penkovski (legendary sleeper mole in the Kremlin), we won’t know until it happens.

On the American side we have:

1. NATO and other treaties that give us a lot of support all over Europe.
2. Serious economic strength, far greater than the Russians have.  This strength would be better used if Biden made some straight forward threats of economic sanctions.    

Explorers 1985 Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson

Cute movie.  The three actors are playing young boys, let’s guess 14 years old.  Young enough to be very cute, old enough to be able to do stuff.  They invent a spaceship, it moves by clean thoughts and righteous living, nothing as crude as rockets.  They evade a suspicious cop, they find off world creatures who know about earth music and flicks.  It’s fun to watch.  The young actors mumble a bit so I didn’t catch all the dialogue, but it could have been worse.  Naturally after adventures in outer space they all make it home safely.  Ethan Hawke gets the nicest role of a good kid, who has a girl friend, and stays out of trouble.  River Phoenix gets the role of super nerd scientist who creates the spacecraft.  Jason Presson gets a decent role as the kid who knows stuff, like welding and finding the more or less ready to go hull of the space craft.   Good watch for children in the vicinity of 10 years old.  But the time they reach 18, forget it.