Poetry

1920s, Art, Books, Pictures, Poetry

Father Neptune and the American girl

This whimsical illustration, showing Father Neptune beset by all manner of aerial pests, appeared in Murray F. Sueter’s Airmen or Noahs: Fair Play for our Airmen; The Great ‘Neon’ Air Myth Exposed (London: Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1928), opposite 410. Sueter had been a technically-minded naval officer (torpedoes, airships, armoured cars, tanks and of course […]

1900s, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Poetry, Post-blogging the 1909 scareships

Tuesday, 1 June 1909

The new Fortnightly Review (actually a monthly, of course) is out today. Each issue opens with a review of ‘Imperial and foreign affairs’, which is usually written by J. L. Garvin, editor of the Observer and a figure of great influence in Conservative politics. Assuming that it is he who penned this Review‘s review, Garvin

1900s, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Poetry, Post-blogging the 1909 scareships, Rumours

Friday, 21 May 1909

After yesterday’s excitement, today is something of an anticlimax as far as scareships are concerned. In fact, it’s more like a backlash. There are some new sighting reports, from Wales again and from Birmingham. The Manchester Guardian reports (p. 7) that Oliver L. Jones, a Monmouth auctioneer (of Messrs. Nelmes, Poole, Jackson and Jones), his

1930s, Civil defence, Contemporary, Periodicals, Poetry, Television, Videos

What’s wrong with a little destruction?

“Slough” by John Betjeman (1937): Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now, There isn’t grass to graze a cow. Swarm over, Death! Come, bombs and blow to smithereens Those air-conditioned, bright canteens, Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans, Tinned minds, tinned breath. Mess up the mess they

Before 1900, Collective security, Contemporary, International air force, Periodicals, Poetry

The nanobot will always get through

[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] Nanotechnology is now starting to move out of science fiction and into the real world, though currently it’s more advanced chemistry than the molecular-scale engineering foretold by K. Eric Drexler more than two decades ago. So no Strossian cornucopia machines yet, no swarms of nanobots swimming in our blood to

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