Category Archives: Writing

Writing

China Destroys Satellite in Weapons Test ? (Updated)

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An interesting news article from the BBC, it is believed that the Chinese military did an anti-satellite weapons test against an old weather satellite of theirs and successfully destroyed it with a surface launched ballistic missile.

The report said that a Chinese Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite, launched in 1999, was destroyed by an anti-satellite system launched from or near China’s Xichang Space Centre on 11 January.

There is the usual outrage over the test, but I do wonder whether they would have said anything if it was the US who had done the same..

Update: China has confirmed that this test took place.

Melbourne and Victoria Power Failures

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Power outages all over Melbourne (as well as Victoria). The Age says:

Large parts of Victoria including much of metropolitan Melbourne are now without power, after bushfires in the north-east of the state knocked out vital transmission lines connecting Victoria to the national power grid.

To see the areas around central Melbourne affected you can go to the CItipower Outages page.

Traffic lights are out, trains are still running (but delayed). Be careful folks..

Update: This report says that the fire has disrupted 2 gigawatts of power that the state would normally have access to.

T.E. Lawrence on Mesopotamia (Iraq)

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After reading the sleeve notes for “Lots of oil” on Yelp! by the Mrs Ackroyd Band I went looking for the letter of T.E. Lawrence to The Times in July 1920 that is mentioned. It appears an archive of his papers is available at http://telawrence.net/ with the texts of his out-of-copyright writings available and in that I found his letter to the editor, The Times, 22 July 1920. I also found a later editorial in the Sunday Times (22 August 1920) which has a rather topical quote:

The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Bagdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are to-day not far from a disaster.