Chan's Personal Blog - History

Deadliest Warrior: Season One Finale

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:36:41 -0700

I spent the weekend watching the Deadliest Warrior marathon on SpikeTV. I have to say, this show is probably one of my favourite shows at the moment. The premise of the show is that they take two warriors, evaluate the deadliness of their respective weaponry/tactics, and punch those values into a computer simulation. The computer program will then run 1,000 battles to determine which warrior would win if the two fought.

The warriors they choose span the ages, from the bronze age all the way up to modern warriors. The match-ups they've had so far are:

Episode 1: Apache vs Gladiator
Episode 2: Viking vs Samurai
Episode 3: Spartan vs Ninja
Episode 4: Pirate vs Knight
Episode 5: Yakuza vs Mafia
Episode 6: Green Beret vs Spetsnaz
Episode 7: Shaolin Monk vs Māori Warrior
Episode 8: William Wallace vs Shaka Zulu
Episode 9: IRA vs. Taliban

I think one of my favourite episodes was William Wallace vs Shaka Zulu because the trash talking from the Scots were hilarious. The weaponry of William Wallace was also quite amazing as they were often one shot one kill weapons. One weapon in particular was said to be like getting hit by a motorcycle at 20mph.

Full episodes are still available on Spike's website, so have a look. Myron has confirmed that the video is in fact viewable from Canada, yay. Wikipedia also has an article which summarizes each episodes, and the kill stats of each warrior (major spoiler alert).

I've been brainstorming what sorts of battles I'd like to see in season 2, and I find myself looking back at warriors from strategy games I've played in the past like Civilization, Medieval Total War, Empire Earth, etc.

Battles I'd like to see:

The Mongols vs The Huns
17th Century British Redcoats vs Scottish Clansmen
Pirate vs Ninja
Medieval Turkish Archers vs English Longbowmen
Alexander The Great vs Ivan The Terrible
The Mossad vs Hezbollah
George Washington vs Napolean

Deadliest Warrior

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:40:17 -0700

So just a short post as I get settled back in San Jose; yes, I made it back alive. I'll have a longer post later. In either case, while I was home, I came across the most awesome show on Spike TV, Deadliest Warrior. Basically they take warriors from history, and try to figure out who would win in a fight. Here's a sample clip from Ninja vs Spartan, guess who will win before you watch the clip.

I also hope one day they'll do a Ninja vs Pirates and settle this long lasting debate once and for all. In either case, I'm totally hooked on the show.

Canada, A Warrior Nation

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:45:46 -0800

With Remembrance Day upon us, I was reading this article in the National Post entitled, "Canada never one to back away from war."

The Canadian Encyclopedia online says peacekeeping is "Canada's special métier" - which it surely is - but that is only one of our military's specialities. In all, in our 141 years of nationhood, more than 116,000 Canadians have laid down their lives to protect our sovereignty and freedom. [...]

After the Germans and Japanese surrendered in 1945, we had the fourth-largest army in the world. Between 1939 to 1945, when our population was just over 12 million, nearly one million Canadians served in uniform. (To put that number in per-capita context, it was the equivalent of today's Canada fielding a military of almost three million - equivalent to the population of Montreal.)

We are not a country that seeks out war. Indeed, we have always let our military deteriorate between conflicts, focusing our public spending instead on domestic priorities. There was almost as much expert and media hand-wringing over the sad state of our Armed Forces between the First and Second World Wars as there was immediately before the recent round of spending by the Conservative government. Yet when called upon, we are always equal to the challenge with our combination of full-time soldiers, reservists and volunteers. Whether ensuring the first election in a nascent democracy goes off fairly, rushing aid and medical personnel into a disaster zone or engaging in old-fashioned combat, Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen have long established that they are even-handed in policing trouble spots and tenacious fighters where someone else has started the battle.

For too long, our politicians, academics and educators have tried to bury or even deny our true military history, insisting we have never been a warrior nation. And while it is true that we have never as a culture glorified war, neither have we backed away.

Yes, Canada has been instrumental in developing the modern concept of peacekeeping, something of which we should be extremely proud. In Kashmir, Suez, Congo, Cyprus, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia, Lebanon, Cambodia, Angola, Mozambique and dozens of other conflicts around the globe, we have over and over again proven ourselves equal to the complex and dangerous task of standing between two warring factions (or more) and keeping them from killing one another. And we have lost over 100 brave young men and women in 50 years of this service to mankind.

Still, we risk dishonouring those Canadians who have gone to war to defend our nation and its values when we seek to revise our history and downplay our contributions to wars fought in the name of freedom. This is especially true at a time when more than 2,500 of our soldiers are battling the Taliban and al-Qaeda on the plains and in the mountains of Afghanistan. Nearly 100 have lost their lives there in the past six years trying to bring stability to the people of that nation and deny terrorists a staging base from which to plot their attacks on the West.

I think it's interesting that the author points out that Canada does not glorify war, but we don't back away from it either. In my time in the US, I have noticed that people here are a bit too rah rah about their military. To illustrate the difference, when was the last time you watched a war movie featuring Canadians in a war conflict? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Hotel Rwanda where it highlights Canadian General Dallaire, and the Canadian involvement isn't really the main part of the story. American war movies, I can list off quite a few: Pearl Harbor, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, Band of Brothers, Patton, etc. In either case, I do prefer the Canadian approach to war making; we don't actively seek out war, but we will bring it if needed.

Remembrance Day used to be kind of abstract to me because I couldn't really internalize what it meant when someone talked about the sacrifices that soldiers make for their country. It only hit home a couple years ago when the headlines said that the US military was stretched really thin, and some politicians were pitching the idea of a draft. A draft usually involves recruiting able bodied citizens, which largely consists of my demographic.

I pondered the hypothetical situation of the things that one would have to give up should a draft actually be implemented. In my case, that would mean not being able to finish my schooling. It would mean being posted to anywhere in the world without my say. It would mean putting aspirations to go after that dream job on hold. It would mean not being able to spend time with that special someone as I could be thousands of miles away. It would mean wondering every day if this was my last day on earth.

With that in mind, I am grateful to those who volunteer to fight our wars, so that the rest of us can enjoy our freedoms as civilians. I end by applauding all those who have served their country to preserve our freedoms, our national interests, and our sovereignty.

Money As Debt

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:43:53 -0700

With the banks imploding all around us, and talks of an $850 billion bailout of the banks, many people have suddenly become interested in the banking system, and why are these awful things happening around us.

There's a short film that's circulating on the internet entitled "Money As Debt" which helps explain some of these things. This film answers questions such as:

What is the role of the central bank?
Where does money come from?
What is a "run on the bank"
etc.

The documentary is pretty accessible to even people with basic understandings of economics and such. It's also completely animated and not too complicated.

To the Ron Paul fans, you've probably heard the congressmen lament how bad our monetary system is currently. One of his solutions is the return to using the gold standard for our money, but this documentary highlights the problems with the gold system.

The first half of the documentary I enjoyed as it gave the history of how banking was created. However, I can't vouch for the second half of the documentary. It suddenly becomes very conspiracy theorist like. An example of this is when they quote from two American presidents who opposed the money system, and they imply that they were assassinated because of their opposition. In addition, I find the documentary's proposed solution of solving the money system's problem to be a bit naive or impractical. Some of the solutions, they wave their hands and say, oh alternative energy could save us money problems without explaining why.

Some of the solutions are very naive. For example, they suggest that if government had complete control over the money system, that would solve all our problems of evil bankers manipulating the system. However, giving absolute power to government is just replacing one problem with another in my opinion. Do we not remember that government has corruption and scandals as well?

I was debating whether to post this or not due to the duality of my opinion of this film. However, there are some nuggets to be sifted out of this. I'll let you decide which parts of this film is true, and which parts are conspiracy theories.

One interesting tidbit of information, apparently this film was created in Cowichan, British Columbia.

In Soviet Russia, Purges Are Rational

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:37:49 -0700

With each passing day, it looks like Russia and the West is starting a new cold war. Putin seems intent on bringing back old soviet power. What better way of doing that than stirring up nationalism, and revising history? I saw this article in the Times entitled, "Stalin's mass murders were 'entirely rational' says new Russian textbook praising tyrant."

Stalin acted entirely rationally in executing and imprisoning millions of people in the Gulags, a controversial new Russian teaching manual claims.

Fifty-five years after the Soviet dictator died, the latest guide for teachers to promote patriotism among the Russian young said he did what he did to ensure the countrys modernisation.

The manual, titled A History of Russia, 1900-1945, will form the basis of a new state-approved text book for use in schools next year.

It seems to follow an attempt backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to re-evaluate Stalins record in a more positive light.

Critics have taken exception, however, to numerous excerpts, which they say are essentially attempts to whitewash Stalins crimes.

In the West, it has been widely accepted that in the 1920s millions were shot, exiled to Siberia, or died of starvation after their land, homes and meagre possessions, were taken to fulfil Stalins vision of massive factory farms.

In the 1930s millions more whom he considered or suspected a threat to the USSR were executed or exiled to Gulag labour camps in remote areas of Siberia or Central Asia, where many also died of disease, malnutrition and exposure.

Historians believe up to 20 million people perished as a result of his actions - more than the six million killed during Hitlers genocide of the Jews. [...]

The manual informs teachers that the Great Terror of the 1930s came about because Stalin did not know who would deal the next blow, and for that reason he attacked every known group and movement, as well as those who were not his allies or of his mindset.

It stresses to teachers that it is important to show that Stalin acted in a concrete historical situation and that he acted entirely rationally - as the guardian of a system, as a consistent supporter of reshaping the country into an industrialised state.

How Do You Fight A War Elephant?

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:29:08 -0700

How do you fight a war elephant? Why pose such a question? Am I using the war elephant as a deep metaphor for problems in our complicated lives? Nope, this has to do with a video game I picked up this last weekend, Rome: Total War. It's a strategy game where you fight historical battles during Roman times. It's so realistic that the History Channel actually used the game to illustrate how famous historical battles were fought and won. I absolutely love the game as it's both very enjoyable to play, and you get to learn about history. Bonus points: The game works on even older computers, which I have.

In either case, so I'm playing as a Roman faction, and I'm doing war with the Carthaginian armies in North Africa. I finally arrived at their capital city, and I'm about to wipe them out. When I finally attack the city, an unexpected foe stands before me and my prize. The Carthaginians are marching war elephants towards my army.

I quickly tried to recall a situation where someone had to fight a war elephant. I suddenly thought, oh yeah, Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King. In that movie, the humans take out war elephants by charging their calvary at it. I'll do the same thing, brilliant!

So I rally all of my calvary to the front lines, and order them to attack the elephants. They start charging, but when they get near the elephants, the horses start freaking out, and refuse to move forward. This is not what I had expected; apparently horses are afraid of elephants, go figure. The elephants then proceed to charge forward, stomping and goring my calvary. Wow, that was a spectacularly failed attack. It worked in the movies! After many more pointless deaths due to elephants, I withdrew my forces, and had to rethink a strategy.

This is an example of what went down, it was horrible:

Continue reading "How Do You Fight A War Elephant?"

How To Hide An Airplane Factory

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:40:30 -0700

I came across this article entitled, "How To Hide An Airplane Factory."

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting and to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

Check out the site, the photos are quite remarkable.

This reminds me of the video game Red Alert, which is a real-time strategy game dealing with the Allied Forces VS The Soviet Union. One of the Allied abilities was creating fake buildings, so enemy forces would waste time attacking fake targets. Looks like the Allies were pretty good at disguising high value military targets as well.

I'm going off on a slight tangent now, but one of the most successful Allied deceptions was Operation Fortitude.

Operation Fortitude was the codename for the deception operations used by the Allied forces during World War II in connection with the Normandy landings (Operation Overlord). It was divided into Fortitude North, a threat to invade Norway, and Fortitude South, designed to induce the Germans to believe that the main invasion of France would occur in the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. Fortitude was one of the most successful deception operations of the war and arguably the most important. Both Fortitude North and Fortitude South were related to a wider deception plan called Operation Bodyguard.

[...]

It was initially envisioned that deception would occur through five main channels:

Physical deception: the creation in the mind of the enemy of non-existent units through fake infrastructure and equipment, such as inflatable rubber tanks and plywood artillery.
Controlled leaks of information through diplomatic channels, which might be passed on via neutral countries to the Germans.
Wireless traffic: the creation of non-existent units through simulation of the wireless traffic that such units would generate, which would be detected by the enemy
Use of German agents controlled by the Allies through the Double Cross System to send false information to the German intelligence services
Public presence of notable staff associated with phantom groups, such as FUSAG (First U.S. Army Group), most notably George S. Patton, the best known senior Allied combat commander.

During the course of Fortitude the almost complete lack of German aerial reconnaissance, together with the absence of uncontrolled German agents in Britain, came to make physical deception almost irrelevant. The unreliability of the "diplomatic leaks" resulted in their discontinuance. The majority of deception was carried out by means of false wireless traffic and through German double agents. The latter proved to be by far the most significant.

In fact, Fortitude was so successful that Hitler regarded the Normandy invasion as a feint: he kept his Panzer units where he expected an attack and away from Normandy, until the battle was decidedin Normandy.[1] Although Fortitude was controlled from SHAEF, London Controlling Section retained responsibility for what was called "Special Means": the use of diplomatic channels and double-agents.

History is pretty awesome.

War Propaganda On Driving Habits

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:54:00 -0700

I came across this awesome war propaganda poster about driving habits.

It's kind of ironic looking back at this. At the time, World War II was being waged as a total war, which meant every resource was going to the war effort. To help that war effort, it probably meant people using car sharing as a way to conserve gasoline, and as a way to conserve raw materials needed to build/maintain cars.

I wonder how long before we go back to that type of thinking when it comes to transportation and cars given the insanely high oil prices, the associated environmental costs, and the fact that petrodollars help sponsor terrorism and nasty regimes.

A Poem For Remembrance Day

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:27:59 -0800

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

-Charles M. Province

The Other Victims Of War

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 23:16:37 -0800

As we get close to another Remembrance Day, there's a lot of movies and documentaries airing on all the channels focusing on the Allied efforts in World War 2. One of the things usually not featured in the spotlight is how people of Japanese ancestry in Canada and America were rounded up from their homes, and forced to live in internment camps. A lot of these people were ordinary citizens, yet it didn't matter in the face of public opinion as thse people were considered as threats to national security. This is probably one of the darker chapters in our history.

In either case, I found this excellent multimedia presentation about those the Japanese in those camps. It was a real eye opener and it made this history more vivid and concrete in my mind. (The music is by Fort Minor which consists of Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park.)

If you'd like to learn a bit more about it, the Wikipedia has articles about Japanese Internment Camps In Canada and in the United States.

Chilling.

American Plans To Invade Canada - 1930

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:49:22 -0800

I saw this fascinating article from the Washington Post entitled, "Raiding the Icebox." The article talks about contingency war plans that the Americans drew up during the 1930s. The declassified documents outline how the Americans planned on taking over Canada if it was required to do so (ie to get back at the evil British).

From the article:

The United States government does have a plan to invade Canada. It's a 94-page document called "Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan -- Red," with the word SECRET stamped on the cover. It's a bold plan, a bodacious plan, a step-by-step plan to invade, seize and annex our neighbor to the north. It goes like this:

First, we send a joint Army-Navy overseas force to capture the port city of Halifax, cutting the Canadians off from their British allies.

Then we seize Canadian power plants near Niagara Falls, so they freeze in the dark.

Then the U.S. Army invades on three fronts -- marching from Vermont to take Montreal and Quebec, charging out of North Dakota to grab the railroad center at Winnipeg, and storming out of the Midwest to capture the strategic nickel mines of Ontario.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy seizes the Great Lakes and blockades Canada's Atlantic and Pacific ports.

At that point, it's only a matter of time before we bring these Molson-swigging, maple-mongering Zamboni drivers to their knees! Or, as the official planners wrote, stating their objective in bold capital letters: "ULTIMATELY TO GAIN COMPLETE CONTROL."

---

It sounds like a joke but it's not. War Plan Red is real. It was drawn up and approved by the War Department in 1930, then updated in 1934 and 1935. It was declassified in 1974 and the word "SECRET" crossed out with a heavy pencil. Now it sits in a little gray box in the National Archives in College Park, available to anybody, even Canadian spies. They can photocopy it for 15 cents a page.

Continue reading "American Plans To Invade Canada - 1930"

Lt. Gen Romeo Dallaire Gives Talk At UVIC

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 23:30:03 -0800

I just saw this announcement that Lt. Gen Romeo Dallaire will be giving a lecture at UVIC on January 9, 2006. Romeo Dallaire was the Canadian general who was in charge of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda during the genocide. The Canadian general in the movie, Hotel Rwanda, is based on Romeo Dallaire. I've also talked about him a few times on my blog before. Last year, he received an honourary degree from UVIC. This is one lecture that you shouldn't miss.

Location: University of Victoria, University Centre A180
Time: Jan 9, 2006, 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Pricing: Admission is free but seating is limited.
Sponsor/Contact: Dr. Jason Walker, (250) 721-6474, jaswal@uvic.ca

If you've got time, you should definitely attend this especially if you're interested in history, peacekeeping, geopolitics, etc.

I think it's ironic that I'm more excited about Romeo Dallaire coming to UVIC than Prime Minister Paul Martin coming to UVIC a few days ago.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 15:42:33 -0800

I found out that tomorrow on the History Channel, they're showing the documentary entitled, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" at 9:00pm - 12:00pm on channel 45. I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who enjoyed games like Civilization, or they have an interest in history. Out of all the documentaries I've watched this year, Guns, Germs, and Steel is definitely one of my favourite ones for 2005.

Here's an abstract of the documentary from PBS:

"Based on Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, Guns, Germs and Steel traces humanity's journey over the last 13,000 years from the dawn of farming at the end of the last Ice Age to the realities of life in the twenty-first century.

Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality.

- Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet?
- Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead?
- Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East?
- Why did farming never emerge in Australia?
- And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?"

The theory that the researcher presents gives a very fascinating hypothesis as to why certain things are like this in the world. Why is Africa poor? How did the European powers take over so much of the world? It nicely ties together events from the beginning of mankind, to events that affect us now.

The documentary combines entertainment and education. It has lots of re-creations of events in history, and the researcher visits a lot of exotic places.

If you can't watch the show, PBS has a summary of the three hour series.

War Stories From Grandparents

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:59:00 -0800

This morning I was watching the Remembrance Day ceremonies on TV. One of the war veterans made an interesting remark. He said that our generation would be one of the last generations that will be able to talk to people who lived through the World Wars. They drove the point home by commenting that there were no World War I veterans at any of the ceremonies today, and this is the first year that this has happened. Apparently there are only five WW1 Canadian veterans left, and they are all not well enough to attend a public function. The time is also ticking for those who lived through WW2 unfortunately. Anyway, the man ended by encouraging our generation, who does not know war, to talk to relatives who lived through the war, and to remember their stories. So, I asked my parents about what my extended family's experience in the war was like.

I encourage you, if you have any war stories from your grandparents, please post a comment about it. I would find it most fascinating.

This article will retell the stories from both my grandmothers who lived in the Pacific theater of the war. One was in China, and the other was in Hong Kong.

Continue reading "War Stories From Grandparents"

Battle of Hong Kong

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 23:58:00 -0800

To commemorate this week of Remembrance Day, I'm going to discuss the Battle of Hong Kong from World War 2. There are two angles to this story that makes it interesting to me. For starters, this was the first battle that Canadian forces fought in the Pacific theatre of the war. Secondly this battle was fought on my family's motherland, so this is important history for me. Read on to learn about Canada's contribution to the Battle of Hong Kong.

Continue reading "Battle of Hong Kong"