A Soldier, a Sailor, an Airman and a Royal Marine got into an argument about which branch of the service was "The Best."  The argument became so heated the four servicemen failed to see an oncoming truck as they crossed the street. They were hit by the truck and killed instantly. ...  Soon, the four servicemen found themselves at the Pearly gates of Heaven. There, they met Saint Peter and decided that only he could be the ultimate source of truth and honesty. So, the four servicemen asked him, "Saint Peter, which branch of the Armed Forces is the best?"    Saint Peter replied, "I can't answer that. However, I will ask God what He thinks the next time I see Him. Meanwhile, thank you for your service on Earth and welcome to Heaven."  Sometime later the four servicemen see Saint Peter and remind him of the question they had asked when first entering Heaven and asked Saint Peter if he was able to ask God for the answer to their question. Suddenly, a spark...

"This war isn't about territory any more. "It's become a war for survival : someone - either the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its' allies, including us, or the People's Republic of Haven - is going down this time, Your Grace. For good." From a report from the High Admiral of Grayson, Wesley Matthews, to Protector Benjamin of Grayson, at the start of this book. This book, " Flag in exile " by David Weber, is the fifth "Honor Harrington" novel and follows on from " Field of Dishonour " so it is set around two thousand years in the future. Following the shattering conclusion of the private war between Honor Harrington and her lifelong enemy Lord Pavel Young as described in the book " Field of Dishonor, " Honor in in disgrace in the eyes of parliament. She has been expelled from the House of Lords, and the admiralty has been forced to take away from her the command of the battlecruiser Nike, and put her on half-pay. S...

The video below tells the story of a battle in terrible weather in the North sea off Lofoten Island, on the first day of the invasion of Norway by the Nazis, 9th April 1940, in which the World War one vintage battlecruiser HMS Renown attacked, and scored a tactical victory over, two modern German capital ships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Both sides took damage from the terrible weather as well as from each other. There was some debate, then and since, about whether Scharnhorst and Gneisenau should be considered battleships or battlecruisers. At the time the Royal Navy classified them as battlecruisers because they were optimised and used as very heavy commerce raiders, while the German navy called them battleships because their speed did not come at the price of lighter armour protection. What is not in doubt is that they were very powerful ships and together outnumbered HMS Renown two to one. Both sides had an escort of screening units - destroyers and on the German side the heavy cru...

One of our regular contributors drew our attention to this Fantasia on the Yorkshire Anthem ( On Ilkley Moor Bah't 'at ) by Simon Mayor, arranged for two mandolins, a mandola, and a mandocello. He hadn't previously heard of a Mandocello, and neither had we. But we understand that this is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family, larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. The term does NOT refer to a type of cello played by Mandalorians as in this picture posted  here on Instagram by the Piano Guys. This is the way ... 

Up to the publication of " Field of Dishonor, " in 1994, its' author David Weber would have been described as a military science-fiction writer. He had been the co-creator, with Steve White, of the space combat strategy game "Starfire" and both of them got their start as published authors with collaborative military SF novels set in the Universe of that game. Weber's next half-a-dozen books, including " Path of the Fury" which was later rewritten and extended as " In Fury Born , " the excellent  Mutineer's Moon  which kicked off a trilogy, and the first three novels in the "Honor Harrington" or "Honorverse" series, were also very much military science fiction, although they did include quite a lot of the economic and political background which set up the space battles the protagonists find themselves in. With the publication of this fourth book in the "Honorverse," David Weber took the risk of alienating...

"The straights of Hormuz should be renamed Schrodinger's Straights As they seem to be open and closed at the same time." (Found on X, formerly twitter, today, with variants from David Keyes @DavidMKeyes and others)

" Band of others " by M. H. Foster, which is the third part of " A gentle apocalypse ," was published on 14th April 2026 and follows on from " The demon overlord's retirement plan " and " Love, politics, and other acts of war. " In the first book in this series, bored with evil after  444 lifetimes of grinding the faces of the poor, despoiling civilisation, fighting and killing heroes, the Demon Overlord of the world of Alteria decided to take the path of Cincinnatus, retire to a farm in a back-country village, and grow turnips. In this book, his attempts to remain inconspicuous and enjoy the quiet retirement for which he had plotted for lifetimes become still more difficult ... While not entirely without challenges, Willem Porter, a.k.a. Galornus Prime, retired Demon Overlord, thinks he has adapted to retirement and learned how to grow really successful vegetables. He has even adapted to the difficulties caused when one of his main lieuten...

We will at some point be putting up a our own reviews of all Timothy Zahn's histories of the Grand Admiral, but in the meantime here is a link to a review of the novel "Thrawn" which we particularly like. Respected Villain: Star Wars Thrawn by Timothy Zahn, reviewed by Aaron Rench . Mr Rench's review of the book begins as follows: "As I read Thrawn by Timothy Zahn, I constantly watched for the moment he turned “bad”. It never came. In the 2017 novel, Thrawn’s character is reestablished but also gets a subtle shift in motivation as he transcends from his days in the Extended Universe to that of the current Canon. Thrawn is a beloved character to many, simultaneously a deep-cut from eras past and a present pillar of tactical brilliance and cunning logic. Those who read any of the Legend books were graced with his unavoidable presence — either as a main antagonist or with a revered reference by both heroes and villains. He’s recently received a new coat of paint, an...

" Love, Politics and other acts of war " by M.H. Foster is the second volume in the "A Gentle Apocalpyse" series. It follows on from " The Demon overlord's retirement plan " in which, bored with evil after  444 lifetimes of grinding the faces of the poor, despoiling civilisation, fighting and killing heroes, the Demon Overlord of the world of Alteria decided to take the path of Cincinnatus, retire to a farm in a back-country village, and grow turnips. After 444 lifetimes of evil, being reincarnated at the end of each, Galornus Prime the Demon Overlord has faked his 444th death and settled down as a farmer in the village of Lower Middleton, which is basically a magical fantasy world's version of a cross between St Mary Mead from Agatha Christie's " Miss Marple " stories, Ambridge from " The Archers, " or Walton's Mountain.  He has managed, not without some challenges, to become accepted by his neighbours, none of who susp...

"Retro Toys and Cartoons" put up a question on X today asking what name he might give it if Emperor Sheev Palpatine (alias Darth Sidious) were to open a restaurant. The most popular reply, with at least a dozen of the 159 replies to date putting this answer forward, was " Order 66. " Nearly as popular was "The Villain Pub." Certainly if it sold Pizza's the Emperor could get Team Unicorn to advertise it with a new Meghan Trainor parody,  " I'm all about that base, Pizza Base! (No Rebels!) " Any other suggestions?

IN WHICH THE BALLOON GOES UP ... " The Short Victorious War " by David Weber, first published by Baen Books in April 1994  was the third  book in the "Honorverse" series, featuring the far future space navy officer Honor Harrington. The message of the book, strongly hinted at in the title, and even more so in two real-world quotes which Weber makes before the prologue, is particularly topical at the time of writing this review in April 2026, some 32 years after the book was first published. The first of those quotes, often attributed to the Russian interior minister Vyacheslav Plehve on the eve of the 1905 Russo-Japanese war, is  " What this country needs is a short victorious war to stem the tide of revolution. " The second, from the Irish journalist Robert Lynd, is     Among those currently wishing they had paid more attention to Robert Lynd's way of thinking must be the current Russian President, who is now into the fifth year of a war he expected t...

The story of how the then Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo first met the then General Anakin Skywalker on Batuu at the time of the Clone Wars, and how many years later Grand Admiral Thrawn worked with Darth Vader in the same area of space, is told in Timothy Zahn's book, "Thrawn: Alliances." This book was previously reviewed on this site here: Book Review: "Thrawn: Alliances" by Timothy Zahn, original novel I thought this short account explaining Thrawn's reaction in the "Ahsoka" series to learning that Anakin has been Ahsoka's Jedi master may be of interest.  PROFESSOR X.

An interesting piece of fan fiction in which Grand Admiral Thrawn was sent to investigate an alien civilisation - and it turns out to be the "Imperium of Man" from the Warhammer 40k universe. Presented in the form of a message from Thrawn to Emperor Palpatine reporting his findings.

This piece is a parody, repeated for amusement, and it is not intended to imply that the views expressed in this "interview" represent the real opinions of either Tucker Carlson or of Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo.  

 Hat tip to the "Blasters and the blades podcast" who tweeted this ...

Admiral Sir Henry Leach, who was Britain's First Sea Lord and chief of the Defence staff during the Falklands war, once said, "Isn't it bizarre that no one complains when the army or air force loses a tank or plane, but all hell breaks loose when a warship sinks? Warships are meant to be used—and some will be lost. But we are here to employ our forces, not languish in fear of risk or for enemy ..." Leach was able to say that partly because he knew exactly what it costs when a warship goes down with hundreds of men. His father, Captain John Leach, had been the captain of the Royal Navy battleship "Prince of Wales" and went down with the ship when it was sunk by Japanese aircraft in 1941.  A similar comment from Admiral Andrew Brown Cunningham, who was the RN's Commander in Chief for the Mediterranean theatre, on the losses his ships were taking from Luftwaffe attacks while evacuating British soldiers from Crete during Word War II: " It takes the Navy...

Hat tip to Ramin Nasibov , who tweeted on X that, quote, "NASA has released a photo of the lunar eclipse."  

 

"Neither Timothy Zahn in his books or Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni in their animated or live-action shows ever encouraged me to say anything about Chiss religious beliefs. But as someone who has made a lifelong study of the culture, art and beliefs of every species I encounter, I have a message today for any humans on Sol III (also known as Earth) who may reading this. To all Christian people celebrating the resurrection of Jesus today, and also to anyone else celebrating Easter, I wish you all a happy and peaceful Easter." Mitth'raw'nuruodo.

All too often X is full of anger and hate, but we keep reading it because every so often you see a fascinating exchange or something very amusing. "Spaceballs The X Account" posted that  "Now that Artemis II has launched we have 10 days to get everyone on Earth a Planet of the Apes costume so we can do something hilarious when the astronauts return 😁"

The Gesualdo six perform J. S. Bach's " O sacred head, sore wounded. "

To all who are celebrating the feast of the Passover: Jesus also celebrated Passover just before he was betrayed, and he said of the bread and wine, " Do this as often as you eat it, in remembrance of me. "  May Jesus be with all who celebrate Easter this year. Whether you celebrate Passover, Easter, both or neither, may you have a peaceful and happy time this weekend. Mitth'raw'nuruodo.

For those with any interest in beautiful pictures of powerful wet navy as well as space navy ships: HMS Revenge, HMS Ramillies, HMS Royal Sovereign and HMS Resolution Steaming in Line in the Atlantic (c.1930.) (Hat tip to "Empire Aesthetics" on X)

  No, this isn't an April Fool - but it started as one. Hat Tip for a great story from Screen Rant, which you can read in full at: One Of The Best Star Wars Stories Ever Written... Was An April Fools' Day Joke White Haven (Admiral of the Green Hamish Alexander-Hamilton, Earl of White Haven)