A brief news post to recommend the coverage given to the CDS’s Xmas speech by The Thin Pin Striped Line & UK Armed Forces Commentary defence blogs. The full text of the speech can be found on Thinkdefence here.
Some highlights follow.
Category Archives: news
Double QMV For The EBU – The single-market as separate from the eurozone
Good news. The UK is, as of this week, less likely to leave the EU than was the case last week. Whether you consider that to be a good thing or not is another matter, but it should at least be considered an unalloyed good that British diplomacy (and Swedish too presumably), worked effectively to head-off further EU encroachment into the sovereignty of the nation-state. As usual, openeurope has a handle on the problem.
Too quote from the paper:
Nokia N9 UK Availability On Contract – It is up to the carriers.
In response to an enterprising fellow on the maemo forums who asked Stephen Elop about N9 availability in the UK, this blog thought it would try and sharpen up the response by sending off another email asking specifically about carrier availability.
Mr Elop very obligingly replied.
The SAS And 82,000 Strong Army – The rumour just won’t go away.
This blog has noted before that the indications are that come 2015, with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, a new SDSR will look to reduce the army from its current planned weight of 95,000 to a lower figure closer to 80,000, and while it is impossible to confirm the rumour it just keeps on popping up. This time it is an article in the telegraph discussing manpower problems within the SAS, and how this would be exacerbated by a still further reduced army.
Maybe there is an element of truth within all this rampant speculation?
Jedibeeftrix Month Thirteen – What happened in previous six.
The first article was hosted by this blog on the 13th of March 2010, just over twelve months ago, and there have now been seventy-eight such posts; twenty-six politics, twenty-six military, and twenty-six technology, so what have I learnt during this period?
First, that although I started this blog because I wanted to make a difference in the General Election and the Defence Review, this has been my best month despite the lull in writing during December and January. Second, that I met a lot of thoroughly excellent people over the last year, people who have commented here, or people whom I have met in discussions elsewhere, thank you all. Third, that in conversing with this myriad of ‘others’ I have learnt an enormous amount, if only by dint of your dogged perseverance. Much obliged.
Jedibeeftrix’s most anticipated PC games of 2011
The SDSR and why the choice of a maritime or a land doctrine is necessary
Article commissioned by Critical Reaction, a website on politics, culture and books.
“To understand why we have ended up with the SDSR we have, we need to see how these pressures came to be arranged just so. Doing so also explains why a fundamental strategic choice is necessary for Britain. We then to realistically see what the structural impacts of such a choice will be, and where this will leave Britain’s world role as a result. Britain’s armed forces will be transform over the course of the next five years, and that process will be governed by the SDSR, whether or not it has been the worthy exercise it could have been………………”
My thanks to the Critical Reaction team for the opportunity to write for their excellent site.
Continue reading ‘The SDSR and why the choice of a maritime or a land doctrine is necessary’
Jedibeeftrix Month Seven – What happened in previous four.
The first article was hosted by this blog on the 13th of March 2010, just over six months ago, and there have now been fifty-seven such posts; nineteen politics, nineteen military, and nineteen technology, so what have I learnt during this period?
First, that it has not been possible to keep up my early pace of publishing, there have actually been slightly less articles in this period despite it being twice the length of time, but it remains thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable regardless, and second, that as far as hits are concerned the trend is upwards, so Jedibeeftrix is continueing to carve a niche for itself.
KDE team releases new version of Desktop Environment, apps and more
Taken from the press release: KDE Releases Development Platform, Applications and Plasma Workspaces 4.5.0
KDE today celebrates its semi-annual release event, making available new releases of the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Development Platform and a large number of applications available in their 4.5.0 versions.
In this release, the KDE team focused on stability and completeness of the Desktop experience. More than 16,000 bugs have been fixed, and many feature requests have been filled.
Q3 2010 – A great time to be into 4X Strategy games.
According to the mighty wikipedia 4X Strategy games are; “a genre of strategy video game in which players control an empire and explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. 4X games are noted for their deep, complex gameplay. Emphasis is placed upon economic and technological development, as well as a range of non-military routes to supremacy. Games can take a long time to complete since the amount of micromanagement needed to sustain an empire scales as the empire grows.”
So what is so Great about Q3 2010?
