Daydream Notes

My Believ Be-12 Flying Boat is finally done. It is a graceful bird in the air and in the water, though like most waterfowl it looks a little goofy on land. The world is wrong: this machine has attractive lines. The feet are definitely awkward and webbed.  First, about the kit: it is a 1/144 scale kit from Amodel, a eastern European or possibly Russian kit manufacturer. They have a large line of interesting subjects in 1/144, mostly Russian subjects obscure in the west (like this Be-12), though they don't limit themselves to the sphere of the former Warsaw pact. They make a 1/144 scale DHC-5 Buffalo and a Grumman Albatross that I may pick up someday. They've been getting some western distributors recently, though I found them on hobbyterra.com/ , a very good online shop in Russia that specializes in eastern model manufacturers. My Be-12 kit came with photoetch parts, though also with the warning that Amodel used technology different from most manufacturers, and...

If you are reading this, you likely know about rationing in the Second World War. Both because of shortages and the pressing need to conserve cargo ship capacity, quite a few things ended up being rationed, or even just vanished from the shelves. One of these shortages that I particularly find interesting is American Coffee rationing since I kind of shudder to think what I'd be like if suddenly I was down to half a cup a day - and I only usually have 2. The reason for the sudden shortage was simple: when America joined World War 2, the Nazi Kriegsmarine sent as many subs as it could to America's east coast, where they had a second 'Happy Time' sinking merchant ships sailing unescorted. The Kriegsmarine also sent Type IX U-boats to the Caribbean, where for a while they were as a wolf among sheep. That meant a drastic drop in South American Coffee being delivered to America, and thus, rationing. Life ran an article on how to make the best of it. Imag...

As you can imagine with my interests, I've been keeping a close eye on Canada's attempts to buy a new jet fighter. Long story short, the program has been a total disgrace, with the single largest purchase of anything in Canada's history being handled with the same intelligence and transparency as a New Brunswick repaving contract being given to some local apparatchik's cousin. Anyway, here is the latest, courtesy of actual reporter David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen: confusion reigns on the f-35 front in Ottawa TL;DR: Last week it was floated by CBC and Reuters that the Cons were going ahead with the F-35 program. An announcement was supposed to happen today, but I think the two stories were trial balloons to see if it was safe for the Cons to just go ahead and do what they wanted to do. Apparently the Groundhog saw its shadow, because now they are keeping to the "saying absolutely nothing" strategy that they've stuck to ever sin...