AI Researcher Fei-Fei Li - The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI

 A very interesting read, from the personal perspective of an immigrant Chinese family coming to America and also from the various AI related goals described, showing the backdrop of the US (salt mines of the) academic research environment (see below, what sold it for me is when she urged her researchers to "read the old stuff" again, not just the latest hot off the press stuff [other people's wins] - as good ideas often come well ahead of their time, with respect to be practical in the "at the time" technology available): 

I listened to this on Amazon's Audible after the recommendation from Geoffrey Hinton's on Twitter (or X if you prefer). 

I also like the way she described the benefit of having a North Star (your own personal one), something that is never attained but is always guiding you in the correct (or at least an interesting) direction (and yes you can switch it, but the obsessive ones who win Noble Prizes don't seem to).

Her Wikipedia page is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fei-Fei_Li

You know when you are liked .. and when you are not .. introducing, the mighty King Zog

I thought Charles de Gaulle had it bad with an alleged thirty assassination attempts (source Alistair Horne, "a Savage War of Peace"), but another European leader had it even far worse, the colourfully named King Zog - who survived an amazing fifty five assassination attempts! (see link below, he certainly had a long a colourful life): 

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

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

There must be a (rather black) game in that backstory!

The French Admiral Suffren - Bane of the Royal Navy

After finishing listening to Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power on History" (although I have to say, it was a much longer than expected slog), I was delighted to uncover an aspect of naval history I was completely ignorant of, namely the illustrious career of the French Admiral Suffren, who was the bane of the Royal Navy on the India station in the late eighteenth century. I have to confess to my relative ignorance of the of both the "Age of Sail" and this great French admiral (other than a class of French WWI vintage armoured cruisers being named after ), things I am trying to address (see below, the Wikipedia link is a very useful starting point):  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Andr%C3%A9_de_Suffren

There is also a wonderfully titled tomb (Satan's admiral) on Admiral Suffren's career, but it is somewhat outside of my price range and budget (see below, I ask you is there nothing [in theory] you cannot buy on Amazon?):  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Admiral-Satan-Life-Campaigns-Suffren/dp/185043686X

From my internet poking I see there are plenty of other wargame bloggers have tread the Suffren path before: 

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/12/admiral-satan-life-campaigns-of-suffren.html

http://devonwargames.blogspot.com/2013/02/battle-of-sadras-1782.html

There are even board games to play: 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31251/monsoon-seas-naval-warfare-south-atlantic-and-indi

Interesting "Age of Sail" web-site:

http://www.larsonweb.com/transfer/miniatures/sail/sailhomepage.htm

More doubtless to follow ;) 

Wikenigma - Wikipedia of Unknown things

 https://wikenigma.org.uk/start

Lots of science and maths stuff here, but some history too

Kuwait 1990 Battle for the Bridges

Here is an interesting battle I knew nothing about from the First Gulf War:

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

From the reference section of the Wikipedia Page (see page 26 [although that is PFDF document page 28] for a description of the battle):

https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/eARMOR/content/issues/1995/SEP_OCT/ArmorSeptemberOctober1995web.pdf

It certainly is an interesting magazine if nothing else.

Remember: 1973 Was not too good a year either!

I was bemoaning the state of the world: Brexit, Trump, Putin, UK Political Parties (May and Corbyn as well as north of the border) and thinking how messed up everything was. Then a good friend reminded me of how bad it was all in the past and how things at least got better! (Eventually for the people who didn't get killed in the meantime). He wrote in an email:  

1973 wasn't a particularly "good year" - 

August 15 – The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, officially halting 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia.

Middle East: 

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

For us (UK) the 'Troubles' and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars#Second_Cod_War

USA

• January 20 – President Richard Nixon is sworn in for his second term.

June 25 – Watergate scandal: Former White House counsel John Dean begins his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee.

today is easy peasy ...

Answer: Keep Calm and Wargame It! More details followed ...

Money

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973%E2%80%9374_stock_market_crash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_banking_crisis_of_1973%E2%80%9375

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

Inflation has risen to 8.4%

IRA 

March – Two IRA bombs exploded in London, killing one person and injuring 250 others. Ten people were arrested hours later at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of being involved in the bombings.

• 8 September – The IRA detonated bombs in Manchester and Victoria Station in London.^[21]
• 10 September
  • IRA bombs at King's Cross and Euston railway stations in London injured 13 people.^[21]
  • The fashion store Biba re-opened in Kensington High Street.^[22]
• 12 September – Further IRA bombs exploded in Oxford Street and Sloane Square.^[21]

War

• January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

And so it goes ...