Showing 1 - 10 of 21
The Future isn't now
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 29/08/2019
» A term I keep encountering is "The Future". You see it on billboards everywhere. Stadiums, department stores, condos, supermarkets, restaurants, theatres, whatever. They eschew the current autos and mobile phones and computers. Space rockets are only a generation or two away.
Weapon of choice
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 25/04/2019
» In my army days, we were issued used M1 rifles. They were heavy and either had hair triggers or they had to be pulled way back before firing, by which time the target had moved.
Flight of fancy
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/03/2019
» Intelligence agencies the world over see Russia's cloak-and-dagger operations as the greatest danger. But Russia's chief enemy is the US, to which it causes endless mischief, both directly and indirectly.
Quantum thriller
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 02/02/2018
» The upside of the digital age is our ability to contact one another in moments. The downside is our lack of privacy. The powers that be intercept and record our conversations and messages. Our thoughts and expressed feelings are common knowledge to authorities determining whether we are security risks.
A Chinese empire?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/11/2017
» As a youngster in the Big Apple during the Great Depression, I recall men with billboard signs with "The world is coming to an end -- REPENT". The people they passed on the streets shrugged them off. l didn't fully understand what it meant, but I knew that threats aren't to be taken lightly.
Supply and demand
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/09/2017
» During the era of the Raj, India was the leading poppy grower. It was sold worldwide as a treatment for hysteria in women and hyperactivity in children. Only China refused to have anything to do with it because it was addictive, but two opium wars taught them how to take it.
A new sleuth
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 15/09/2017
» Society is based on the deal that in return for protection and security, the authorities have permission to define our rights, inalienable and otherwise. Laws and regulations apply. Nothing is more disconcerting than when they overstep their limits.
Three days in May
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 11/08/2017
» Hitler learned a lesson from his unsuccessful Munich putsch of 1924 -- that weapons are legal only in the hands of the government. He spent the next decade getting into the national government. After that Germany built weapons at breakneck speed.
Renaissance history
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 14/07/2017
» I am so conditioned when I pick up a new book about Italy that I expect it to be a historical novel about Ancient Rome. That period seems to fascinate historians and historical novelists. This reviewer finds it no more than somewhat interesting.
Off the bad guys
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 23/06/2017
» Nations are paranoid, apprehensive that they will be attacked from one direction or another. History has shown that today's friends may well be tomorrow's enemies. So they pre-emptively draw up plans for war against neighbours and distant lands, stockpiling weapons.