What book are you reading now?

[MarkOttawa]

Also learned in the book about the Marlin M42 submachine gun:

"...
Intended for use by U.S. troops at the time of its design, it found more favor being air-dropped to partisan forces in occupied Europe. The weapon was air dropped to supply British-led partisan forces on the island of Crete, where it was used extensively. It also saw use among the partisan forces of the Italian and French Resistance. Some of them were transferred to Dai Li's regular resistance forces in China for use against the Japanese invasion. The United Defense M42 was issued for use by Filipino troops under the Philippine Army and Philippine Constabulary during World War II from 1942 through the Post-World War II era until the 1960s and was used by the local recognized guerrillas from 1942 to 1945 during the Japanese Occupation.[citation needed] The use of the 9 mm caliber allowed resistance forces to use captured ammunition in their weapons, eliminating the need for repeated re-supply drops..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Defense_M42

More:
http://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/78048160002/united-defense-m42-developed-by-high-standard

Also a Marlin M2:
http://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/109815849250/hyde-inland-m2-submachine-gun-the-hyde-m2-is-the

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Dockrill923]

yeah I agree with the sticky for sure. If I find a book worth reading I tell people. if its not worth reading I tell even more.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Leigh Fermor's book is worth reading because it describes in great detail and with great colour the execution of a remarkable special operation by Brit SOE personnel who by today's standards had little training.  But they were very bright, resourceful and unconventional (and knew languages); some had great experience working with the Cretans over quite some time.  The Cretans themselves also come across as quite remarkable people in their very intelligent resistance to the Wehrmacht in cooperation with the Brits.

Leigh Fermor is the one person whose life I might wish to have lived (see those other books)--and he never even went to university though coming from a good family.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[dimsum]

Which one was less than stellar? Book 3? I'm having trouble getting into book 3.

Nah 3 was good.  5 is back on par with Book 1.

 

[Edward Campbell]

"The Rise and Fall of American Growth, The US Standard of Living Since the Civil War," Robert J Gordon, Princeton & Oxford, 2016.

Those who follow my posts will know that I believe that understanding economic history is at least as important as understanding military history if one wants to understand the global strategic imperatives. This book is thick, heavy and dense and massively informative. Prof Gordon is a good, lively writer (and speaker) but he has a detailed case to make and he needs to demonstrate the validity of his thesis which is, more or less simply, that the century from 1870 to 1970 was sui generis and we, not America, not China, not Europe and not Africa, can hope to recreate its phenomenal burst of inventiveness and (consequential) growth in anything like the near to mid-term future.

Essentially, he says, we can only "learn to fly" and then "go onto space" once, we can and will expand upon those basic technologies but the "big things' have been done. Ditto for computing: we can make, and are making computers betters and smaller and faster and, and, and ... but the basic technology, the solid state processor, which makes it all possible has been "done," once and need not be "done" again. Prof Gordon deals at considerable length with the socio-economic impacts of e.g. the motor vehicle vs the horse and the electro-mechanical elevator and this should be read in conjunction with e.g. Fred Kaplan's "1959: the Year That Changed Everything," to understand that, perhaps, it was not the microcomputer or the Vietnam War that 'changed everything" but, rather the advent of the "pill," and sexual freedom.

Both Robert Gordon and Fred Kaplan challenge is to take the "long view" and look at the impacts of historical events ~ including technological, industrial, economic and cultural events ~ in order to try to understand what comes next. Neither is saying that we will nor have a new burst of inventiveness sometime, but they both suggest that it will not be soon and that we, in the US led West, and our grandchildren, must learn to adapt and succeed (prosper) is a lower/slower growth economy.

 

[Journeyman]

Mike, would you consider adding a sticky to this thread encouraging people to post their thoughts on the book after they've read it?

Mark, Ted,....thanks for those, but I actually meant in the original "What book are you reading now?" I didn't mean to duplicate that thread. 

Mods to housekeeping. Mods. Housekeeping. ;D

 

[The Bread Guy]

Mods to housekeeping. Mods. Housekeeping. ;D

"Cleanup in thread 32288, cleanup, thread 32288..."

Merged back, with this request ...

Mike, would you consider adding a sticky to this thread encouraging people to post their thoughts on the book after they've read it?

I'm not Mike, so this'll have to do

Seriously, moving forward, please keep this in mind when posting a suggested book - it would be appreciated if you also shared why you liked it,or why it sucked.  Thanks for your help in enhancing the thread.

Milnet.ca Staff

 

[Journeyman]

...I'm not Mike, so this'll have to do

I was counting on you Tony, but it is  Mike's site, so we have to let him think he's actually in charge of the asylum.  ;D

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

I was counting on you Tony, but it is  Mike's site, so we have to let him think he's actually in charge of the asylum.  ;D

I've exerted that illusion of control by implementing your idea as my own.

There's now a short note tacked on to the first post in this thread (which nobody will read) encouraging a bit of analysis vs. a bit of an anal list.

 

[MarkOttawa]

E.R. Campbell:

"The Rise and Fall of American Growth, The US Standard of Living Since the Civil War," Robert J Gordon

Have just read --superb.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[observor 69]

E.R. Campbell:

"The Rise and Fall of American Growth, The US Standard of Living Since the Civil War," Robert J Gordon

Have just read --superb.

Mark
Ottawa

More on the same theme:

Moore’s Law Running Out of Room, Tech Looks for a Successor

By JOHN MARKOFF MAY 4, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, the computer industry has been guided by a faith that engineers would always find a way to make the components on computer chips smaller, faster and cheaper.

But a decision by a global alliance of chip makers to back away from reliance on Moore’s Law, a principle that has guided tech companies from the giant mainframes of the 1960s to today’s smartphones, shows that the industry may need to rethink the central tenet of Silicon Valley’s innovation ethos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/05/technology/moores-law-running-out-of-room-tech-looks-for-a-successor.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

 

[dimsum]

Just read Ken Liu's "Paper Menagerie" reprinted at io9, link below as I'm not sure if it's appropriate to quote the entire story here.  It won the 2011 Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and is a quick (short story) read.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5958919/read-ken-lius-amazing-story-that-swept-the-hugo-nebula-and-world-fantasy-awards

 

[FJAG]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by Kim Barker (previously known as "The Taliban Shuffle: strange days in Afghanistan and Pakistan)

Good interesting read which extends significantly beyond the events presented in the recent Tina Fey movie (and also doesn't have in it the phony Canadian security guard posing as a New Zealander - must have been a movie in-joke directed at Lorne Michaels)

Nicely written with a good bit of humour and self-deprecation and some insight into the American journalism industry and Afghan and Pakistani politics.

:cheers:

 

[RocketRichard]

Shadow War by Sean McFate. A yarn about 'deep states' by ex special forces, mercenary and prof at Georgetown. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MarkOttawa]

Further to this list from 2012,
http://milnet.ca/forums/threads/32288/post-1159521.html#msg1159521

Quote from: ObedientiaZelum on July 22, 2012, 20:40:26

Friend sent this in an email. Thought I'd throw it up here for ideas.

USMC suggested book list by rank
...
Sergeant
...
• Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger
...

Read the book long ago, was quite impressed (note comment at end of the post):

“Storm of Steel”, or, Ernst Jünger: German World War I “Born Warrior” (with Canadian [Vietnam] angle)
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/mark-collins-storm-of-steel-or-ernst-junger-german-world-war-i-born-warrior-with-canadian-angle/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[exspy]

3 Para by Patrick Bishop, focusing on life in a Platoon House in Afghanistan

I've just started reading Bishop's sequel; Ground Truth: 3 Para Return To Afghanistan (2009), about 3 Para's return tour to Helmand on Herrick 8, eighteen months after the tour in the first book.

I'm on Chapter 4 and so far it's a cracking good read.

Cheers,
Dan.

 

[Pieman]

"Understanding Convolutional Neural Networks"....I hate my life. :/

 

[muskrat89]

"The Checklist Manifesto"

 

[cupper]

Just finished Red Platoon by Clinton Romesha, which details the events that took place during the battle of COP Keating.

Romesha was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions that day.

A very interesting read. It's a hard look at the poor site selection of the outpost, and the difficulties that created and lead to its ultimate downfall.

Its a brutal and harsh read for anyone who has never experienced combat.

Romesha writes as if you were sitting down over a few beers and talking about his experiences of that day. He doesn't hold back, you get his opinions and thoughts without the filters.

Links to threads discussion Romesha's award of the MOH.

http://army.ca/forums/threads/108953/post-1200881.html#msg1200881

http://army.ca/forums/threads/109422/post-1208489.html#msg1208489

 

[godspeedinfinity]

The Best Little Army in the World - J.L. Granatstein

Fantastic look at Canada during the latter years of the Second World War. It's awesome to hear about some of the lesser known events of the war. A must-read for anyone interested in Canadian military history.