A death in the family...

It seems that from a certain age and onward we enter the time when life takes away more than it seems to be giving. I have never felt loss more acutely than in the past 20 months or so.

Cheering for meaningless joys and carefree idle summer hours to come, I received the phone call. And I had to break the news to my father that one of his brothers has died.

It seems such a cliché but I could see that my father sensed what I had to say even before he asked me "Who died now?"

Still, I know it is not my uncle's death that in the time to come will carry the greatest weight. It will be the regret for all that bitterness that the siblings worked up between them, barely allowing them to exchange cold, formal seasons' greetings.

The regret that they allowed to drift apart from each other, never to make amends and remember better days again.

And, in times like these, I think that it is better to be an only child.
And deep down inside, utterly alone.


Not much to lose this way....

Christos Papadimitropoulos
1934 - 2008


requiescat in pace

( I am sorry that we never had the chance to really know each other)

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Let the good times roll...II

Και το ξεκαθάρισμα στα memory sticks συνεχίζεται.... Enjoy!

Όποιος ξαναχρησιμοποιήσει αλκοόλ σε ανήλικο θα βρεί το μπελά του! (γιατί ή οι ανήλικοι ξεβάφουν ή οι Ελληναράδες δεν μπορούν να συντάξουν μια πρόταση) Θεσσαλονίκη, Απρίλιος 2008 FAIL!


Ή είσαι μεγάλος στρατηγός ή δεν είσαι! (Στην περίπτωσή μου... ΕΙΣΑΙ ) omg - pwn !!!

Γιατί οι Μαρουσιώτες θέλουν να περπατάνε όσο το δυνατόν λιγότερο... (ή αλλιώς, να τί συμβαίνει όταν οδηγείς με Parkinson τελικού σταδίου υπο πλήρη αγωγή) Μαρούσι, Οκτώβριος 2007...FAIL! (Η αλήθεια είναι ότι έτσι όπως ήμουν τον Οκτώβριο, θα μπορούσε να ήταν και ένα μάυρο POLO στην ίδια θέση... :(




Ποιός άλλος θα μπορούσε να ισορροπήσει τόσα ζάρια; pwn! Απο τα φθινοπωρινά (2007) sessions του campaign του Ραφαήλ - sorry Raf :(

Η Γ΄Π. επι το έργον...(Πειραιάς, Δεκέμβριος 2007. Χριστίνα και Γεωργία επιμένουν υγιεινά - το milko είναι δικό μου, Δόξης και Εριέττα στον ν-οστό καφέ!) pwn!

Γιατί έτσι σερβίρουμε εμείς το κρασί στην Ηλεία (στα ηρωικά Καβάσιλα! - Πάσχα 2007) Ή με το μπρίκι (see background) ή με το λάστιχο! pwn !

Και για όσους δεν κατάλαβαν: ΚΥΡΙΕ ΚΕΡΑΤΑ ΑΣ ΤΟ ΝΕΡΟ. (Απο πόρτα ακατοίκητου στο Ρουφ, Μάιος 2007. Τί έκανα μεσημεριάτικα στο Ρουφ; Nevermind...) pwn !

Κάποιος διαβάζει Luther Blisset... pwn (Μαρούσι, Οκτώβριος 2007)

Αυτό θα έπρεπε να το ανεβάσω στο indymedia... pwn! (Παλιά Βουλή, Απρίλιος 2007)

Αυτά..... :-)




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Verlorene Siege: Barbarossa!

On 22 June 1941, Germany launched Barbarossa, the greatest offensive up to that moment in History, in a fatal but unavoidable attempt to deal with the USSR before the Soviets were fully prepared for war.

Despite many warnings, including detailed reports by the greatest spy of all times, Richard Sorge, who worked for the Soviets, surprise was complete.

The German Army at that point was far superior in training and material concentration than the Soviet Army.

"Artillerie am Front" (Artillery to the Front) by Eduard von Handel-Mazzetti, 1942

However, the vastness of the Soviet land made the timeline for the objectives wildly optimistic and the doggedness of the Soviet defenders (despite the huge initial collapse) wore the Wehrmacht down with irreplaceable loss of life and material (during the first week of Barbarossa the Germans lost more than they had lost during the whole two years of war before).

The offensive bogged down, neither Lerningrad nor Moscow were captured and by winter instead of a great victory the German Army faced a huge front, ill-supplied troops unprepared for the Great General Winter and a Soviet counteroffensive by the Siberian divisions that were relocated to the West when Richard Sorge affirmed that the Japanese would not attack from the East.

The Great Patriotic War had just began and would end with the utter defeat of the Germans.

"I swear to defeat the enemy!"

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Two videos. The first is colour footage from the early stages of the invasion (with rather lame music: the Last of the Mohicans theme) and the second one is pictures of the Soviets with the great patriotic song Svyashennaya Voina (Holy War) by Alaksandr Aleksandrov.

Священная война

For the Motherland!

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Waterloo!

On 18 June 1815 the armies of the Seventh Coalition (Great Britain, Prussia, the United Netherlands, Nassau, Hanover and Brunswick) under the command of Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington ("the Iron Duke" - "Whoever soils a Wellington puts his foot in it") and of Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht Graf von Blücher ( "Marschall Vorwärts" ) met and defeated the army of Napoleon Bonaparte in the famous Battle of Waterloo, in "a damn close-run thing".

For now two things:

First, the ABBA song "Waterloo" from the 1974 Eurovision song contest (notice the orchestra conductor Sven Olaf Walldoff with his Napoleon costume)

and a witty poem by some Thomas Gaspey about Lord Uxbrige's (Henry Paget's) leg that had become a tourist attraction in Waterloo when it was lost to grapeshot from the French artillery (with the famous anecdotal dialogue between Uxbridge and the Iron Duke: "By God, sir, I've lost my leg!" - "By God, sir, so you have!" ) :

Here rests, and let no saucy knave
Presume to sneer and laugh,
To learn that mouldering in the grave
Is laid a British calf.

For he who writes these lines is sure
That those who read the whole
Will find such laugh were premature,
For here, too, lies a sole.

And here five little ones repose,
Twin-born with other five;
Unheeded by their brother toes,
Who now are all alive.

A leg and foot to speak more plain
Lie here, of one commanding;
Who, though his wits he might retain,
Lost half his understanding.

And when the guns, with thunder fraught,
Pour'd bullets thick as hail,
Could only in this way be taught
To give his foe leg-bail.

And now in England, just as gay -
As in the battle brave -
Goes to the rout, review, or play,
With one foot in the grave.

Fortune in vain here showed her spite,
For he will still be found,
Should England's sons engage in fight,
Resolved to stand his ground.

But fortune's pardon I must beg,
She meant not to disarm;
And when she lopped the hero's leg
By no means sought his h-arm,

And but indulged a harmless whim,
Since he could walk with one,
She saw two legs were lost on him
Who never meant to run.

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Victory at the Falklands!

On 14 June 1982, the Falklands War ended with the surrender of the occupying argentinian forces that had garrisoned the Falklands capital, Stanley.

Those desolate and cheerless islands had been under uninterrupted British sovereignty since 1833.

In 1982, the argentinian junta of Leopoldo Galtieri, in an effort to divert public attention away from its oppressive practices, launched an invasion and occupied the Falklands.

The argentinians did not really believe that Britain would respond decisively because of the distance and the huge logistic difficulties that such an endeavour presented, especially after the crippling cuts of military expenditures that were undertaken to support the thatcherist economy doctrine.

However it was unthinkable that an insignificant country like Argentina would ivade and occupy Her Majesty's territories. Despite the enormous difficulties of the task, the British Prime Minister, the Iron Lady of Britain, the Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher (now The Baroness Thatcher , LG, OM, PC) decided to prove that Britannia still rules the waves.



The British task force assembled in the mid-Atlantic British island of Ascension and then, off to the Falklands!


The island of South Georgia was recaptured immediately (April 25) and the argentinian submarine Santa Fe was crippled and abandoned:

"Be pleased to inform Her Majesty that the White Ensign flies alongside the Union Jack in South Georgia. God Save the Queen."

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Secetary of Defence, John Nott break the news of the recapture of South Georgia at 10 Downing Str. reporters crowd:

"Just rejoice at the news", the Iron Lady said.


In any case, the argentinian airforce outnumbered the aircraft of the British task force. The operations became progressively more difficult and the British lost a number of ships to Exocet missiles and air bombing.

Final moments and sinking of the HMS Antelope, her magazines exploding in the fires that followed her bombing by argentinian aircraft (video by some argentinian nationalist).


The HMS Sheffield burning.

Despite all that, Her Majesty's SAS commandos dominated land warfare, the argentinian navy never left port (to be discussed below) and the Harriers proved very tough opponents in air combat. The argentinian forces were doomed and the stupidity of the junta to challenge British supremacy caused its downfall after the war ended.

I will not go into lengthy details. I will simply note two things:

1. The modern strategic importance of the submarines.

The HMS Conqueror, a Churchill-class nuclear-powered submarine sank early in the conflict the ARA General Belgrano.

Final moments of the Belgrano. She is listing to port, her bow missing fore of gun turret no.1, after being hit by two torpedoes.

THE SUN cover misrepresenting the facts in the initial confusion. In fact, it was the cruiser that was sunk. (And another issue: Unions fighting thatcherist policy were boycotting the war:Hence the anti-union slogan of the times: "Call off the rail strike or we'll call an air strike!"

With the sinking of the Belgrano, the british submarine threat forced the argentinian navy to never leave port again for the duration of the conflict. How about that?

2. Even though the British had relatively modern anti-aircraft capabilities, they suffered heavy losses in ships and equipment. If all argentinian bombs that hit the ships exploded, the outcome of the war would have ben different. Indeed, the only system that can reliably provide fleet-wide anti-aircraft and anti-missile coverage is the US Navy AEGIS system. This is the strategic importance behind Taiwan's intentions to aquire AEGIS-able frigates from the US.


Anyway, in the end: Margaret Thatcher's first statements, with the crowd in the background singing "Rule Britannia!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFXOw_nAPh0

"We knew what we had to do and... and we went about it!"

Aaaaand.....

Della Jones and John Tomlinson, "Rule Britannia" with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. by Barry Wordsworth at the 1993 BBC Last Night of the Proms, at the Royal Albert Hall.



Cymru!!! (see her dress...)

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Run silent, run deep...

Some of you may think, because of my comments in the KMS Bismarck post, that I do not like submarines. Nothing could be further from the truth. I simply commented that their limitations at that time denied them a strategic role (Even convoy raiding became nigh impossible when His Majesty's navy employed more sophisticated methods in their convoy ASW escort). Now, powerful and reliable torpedos, cruise missiles, nuclear warheads, nuclear reactors and silent drives give modern submarines a multidimensional role with many strategic aspects (besides that of a silent nuclear weapons platform) as seen in the Falklands war, which will be my next post.

For the moment, let me just say that I am a sub person and many are the hours that I have spent on submarine simulators running real-time patrols... :)

Here are two videos: The first one is of the KNM Utsein (S 302 ), an Ula-clas diesel-electric submarine of the Royal Norwegian Navy (german design: U-Boot Klasse 210) test-firing a DM2A3 torpedo against the KNM Stavanger, an aged norwegian Oslo-class frigate that had been decommissioned in 1998. The test took place in 2001.

For the Ula-class submarines we read in Wikipedia:

"The Ula class submarines are among the most silent and manoeuverable submarines in the world. This, in combination with the relatively small size, makes them difficult to detect from surface vessels and ideal for operations in coastal areas. During the annual NATO Joint Winter exercise in 2004, the HNoMS Utvær had to be disqualified from the exercise because it kept the entire landing operation at bay. The Ula class submarines are regarded as both the most effective and cost-effective weapons in the RNoN."



The second video is a wonderful scene from the film Crimson Tide, when the Ohio-class submarine dives to commence patrol operations. Here is the ultra-cool dialogue:

- X.O., take her down.
- Take her down. Aye, sir. Control/Bridge: Sounding.
- Bridge/Control: Sounding: one-three-zero fathoms.
- Lookouts, clear the bridge.
- Clear the bridge. Aye, sir.
- Officer of the deck, prepare to dive.
- Captain down.
- Captain is down.
- X.O. Down.
- X.O. is down.
- Submerge the ship.
- Diving Officer, submerge the ship. Make your depth one-five-zero feet.
- Make my depth one-five-zero feet. Aye, sir. Chief of the watch, on the 1MC, DIVE, DIVE !
- Make your depth one-five-zero feet. Five degree down bubble.

The choir sings what seems to be an abridged version of the first two verses of the US Navy Hymn, "Eternal Father strong to save":

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Amen.

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Betrayal

One thing that all people who claim to know me have to say about me is that I am moral, dignified and trustworthy, a good person all in all.

I sometimes pointed out in vain something. Something that the three or four people who really know me have pointed out themselves: that simply because I am not a cruel-hearted and uncaring bastard does not make me the bastion of dignity, morality and goodness that I choose to put on display.

These virtues that I, along with everybody else who knows them, so admire in my parents are virtues that have to be proven by test in tempering hardships.

I could certainly be conceited, indifferent, cold, uncaring or anything that people born even in the tiniest bit of privillege tend to become. I do believe that I am a good person.

However, the core of these virtues was hardly ever tested in me. Hardly did I ever come to the need to prove anything as in the majority of situations I lorded above my peers.


It has come to pass these past hours, days and months that I have betrayed these things time and again. I have betrayed the virtues I professed belief in, I have betrayed, lied to, hurt and exploited my friends and I have betrayed myself.

I have fallen low. I have irreversibly proven myself weak. Weak and undignified.

Now is the time to set things straight. Try to give back to people that which they have given to me freely, even after I have betrayed their emotions, their love and trust.

I will have to rise up to the challenge (maybe for the first time in my life). And to make the ultimate sacrifice of that which has brought me so low.

"Passion is a strict lord / He is also its humble slave."

Not even passion, not even true love can justify betrayal. And the reckless hurting of other people because one cannot endure the pain. This is High Treason.

Enough. Enough now.

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Journey to the Outremere: Ikhwan of the Three Kings (Beyruth, 2008)

The Three Kings: Fedayeen, al-Sharif and al-Bedouin

Beware the khinjar of al-Orens...

PS: Photos © : Dimitris Dimopoulos
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Imperial Journey: Death in Vienna Everything dies. (Who wants to live forever?)

Vienna is filled with the death trappings of the Habsburg dynasty. Death comes particularly hard on a life of power and privillege and the very least one can do is go out in an operatic way.

However it can be very moving. From the Augustinians' church at the Hofburg (where the Habsburg hearts are placed in urns) to the crypts of the Stephansdom (where their internal organs are placed) and to the capuchins' Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) where their bodies proper are laid to rest, Vienna keeps reminding the visitor that everything and everyone dies. Memento mori.

Descent to the Stephansdom crypt...

This time I managed to visit all three resting places of the Habsburgs. More interesting are the images from the capuchins' Imperial Crypt:

Death's head decoration from the huge sarcophagus of Maria Theresia. As time progressed sarcophagi became less ostentatious and ornate however.


Sarcophagus of a Habsburg archbishop.




Poor Franz Joseph. He worked from early morning to late night, received hundreds of officials everyday, changed the face of Vienna with a massive construction project for theatres, facades and so on, and yet... all that remains to remember...Mayerling, the fall of the Empire in the Great War and his late dementia, when he was kept locked in his toilet so as not to shit all over Schönbrunn palace, as "The Good Soldier Svejk" informs us...


...and poor Sissi. Some hungarian must have left the flowers. They are so like the flowery stars that she wore on her hair...

Stars.

Appropriate indeed to think of stars today. One thinks of something when one loses it.

For the internment of Empress Zita of Bourbon-Parma, wife of the last Austrohungarian Hbsburg Emperor Karl I, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, the legend for the tradition into the capuchins' crypt was played out in whole. My aunt attended the funeral and she recounted to me the ceremony, as best as she could remember:

Empress Zita

The funeral process stopped at the gate of the Kapuzinergruft. The herald knocked on the heavy door. "Who desires to enter?" replied the gatekeeper monk from inside...The Herald announced that Her Imperial Majesty the Empress-consort Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary has passed away and is by imperial right to be interred in the crypt. "We, the dead in here, know of no Empress Zita" came the sorrow-laden voice of the monk.

The Herald knocked, the question was placed again, to which he replied that Zita of the Habsburgs has passed away. "We know of no Habsburgs" came the grief-striken reply.

The Herald knocked for a third time. The monk again asked "Who is it that desires to enter?"

There was silence, and then, the Herald said:



"Zita, a poor commoner, whose sins are as numerous as the stars in the sky..."

Tears in his eyes, the monk said "Then... she may pass".

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Let the good times roll...

Μετά απο σύντομη επιδρομή σε κάρτες μνήμης και scanners... Κλικ για να τις δειτε στο κανονικό μέγεθος και...Enjoy!

pwn!

Οι γαμπροί της Ευτυχίας (Διονύση έφυγες πριν σε παντρέψουμε...) - Χίος, Αύγουστος 2007

Κρατάω στα χέρια μου ένα μέρος της φυσικής ιστορίας της Χίου...(παρακαλώ προσέξτε το Tremere βαμπιρο-T-shirt) pwn!

Και η φυσική ιστορία της Χίου, μαγειρεμένη και σερβιρισμένη πλέον... δεν μπορώ να πώ ότι έμεινα νηστικός απο τις τύψεις επειδή το έβρασαν ζωντανό... pwn!

Και οι γιατροί μπορούν να περάσουν καλά, αρκεί να οργανώνω εγώ τη βραδιά και να αφορά εμένα... :P - στο βάαααθος της πρώτης φωτό θα πρέπει να είναι η Αντωνία. Ο Άγγελος φαίνεται ελάχιστα πίσω απο το κεφάλι του απειλητικού Κακάβα και οι υπόλοιποι γνωστοί. (Απο τη γιορτή για τη γιορτή μου, Απρίλιος 2004 - Λεβή, αν ζείς, να μου επιστρέψεις τις υπόλοιπες φωτό)

Απίσχνανσις... επειδή στο Κολωνάκι δεν αδυνατίζουν απλώς... FAIL!



Γιατί όλη η Γ' Π. στο μπουφέ και κανείς στην πίτα; pwn!

Λέτε η ευρύτερη περιοχή να είναι αδιέξοδο για τους straight; Την έβαψα... FAIL!

Τί κανει ένας γιατρός στο αμφιθέατρο Δεριγνύ της ΑΣΟΕΕ; pwn!

Η Πατησίων όπως θα έπρεπε να είναι... FAIL!


"Το Bluetooth ειναι αποτυχία σύνδεση....". Ποιός είμαι εγώ να διαφωνήσω...; FAIL!

Απο μια βραδιά στο Escoba lounge... Ο κύριος με το λευκό κρασάκι του και η "δεσποινίς" με την Duvel της... Μα ποιός φοράει τα παντελόνια; Υποψιάζομαι strap-on... :> FAIL!

Όντως, μερικές φορές δεν πάει άλλο.Κι εγώ μαζί σου φίλε... "Αν είσαι σπίτι/ τότε ετοιμάσου για Βομβάη!" pwn!

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Imperial Journey: Denn du bist was du isst (Viennese confectionery)

Today I ate the last Demel chocolate I brought back from Vienna (the Venchi chocolate slab from Milan has been a distant memory for more than a week...).

The last ammunition (to quote a friend...)

Fortunately, there are a few sugar coated violetta flowers (also by Demel) left...


...and of course the sweeter memories of the journey:

Sacher Torte and "viennese" ;) coffee at Café Sacher of the Sacher Hotel

"Viennese" coffee and chocolate covered strawberry and cream cone (by Landtmann's) at the Mozart Café across the Albertina.

PS: Are we what we eat? In this case I hope so.

PS II: I remember my cousin telling me what a comical sight that tourists were when they were taking pictures of the Sacher torte or the huge schnitzels at Figlmüller, while he was checking out a passing Maybach. When he turned his head he saw me trying to take a picture of the cone. Well, scratch one comment... :>



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