How Holland Conquered The World

Not The Country
Foolish readers!  Although, to be honest, those Netherlanders did manage to colonise a fair bit of Asia back in the sixteenth century.  Don't forget Tasmania was originally "Van Diemen's Land", after all.
     For we are back talking about the Holland brothers, Tom and James.  You will already have heard me banging on about Jim and his podcast "We Have Ways" - Art?

Evidence.  Jim to port.

     Jim had his own series on Channel 4 that I was also banging on about, and he's published lots of books on various military history themes.  Well, now, let's see what the haul from Church Street Books amounts to, shall we?

Lower port.  See?

     Not satisfied with all the non-fiction he's done, now Jim has branched out into fiction and "The Odin Mission" is the first in a series of books to feature Sergeant Jack Tanner.  This one is about the disastrous British campaign in Norway and it features several real people, such as Brigadier Morgan, the harried OC of 148 Brigade.  One wonders about the legality of attributing thoughts and words to someone who is no longer with us.
      Anyway, I had idly noticed Jim's brother, Tom, making a comment on one of the former's Twitter feeds.  Then I realised - Art?

The edition I have

     So I've got works by both of them, and I might have another unread TH work sitting in my book mountain.
     There you have today's title.
     Right, motley, let us go out for a meal; are you willing to go Dutch with me*?

A Matter Of Contrast
Your Humble Scribe is now up to Page 314 of Stephen King's "The Stand", of which I had seen the old mini-series a very long time ago yet not read the book.  The edition I'm reading is from the original MSS, and is over 1,000 pages long.  In case you are unsure of the story, then just recall that quote from Poe: "Much horror and madness the soul of the plot".  Essentially, a lab accident allows a "superflu" virus to escape into the South Canadian general population, and things are falling apart, with an immunity rate of perhaps 0.01%.  Art?

My edition

     In utter contrast, I am watching "Worzil Gummidge", which popped up on BBC a couple of days ago.  Not the Jon Pertwee iteration <moment's silence for the great man>, this one has sprung from the mind of McKenzie Crook, whom you will have seen in those "Pirates of the Caribbean" films.  Oh, and in "Detectorists", too, another whimsical series where nothing much happens, but it happens in an especially charming way.  I bet this would go down a storm in South Canada.  Art?

Mac and Jon

     It is quite charming and there were and a couple of laugh-out-loud moments - especially when Worzil tries to negotiate a truce with the crows, who demand "Guns and cash!" in return.  Advised by Warren Zevon, one assumes.

Conrad Is ANGRY!  VERY ANGRY!
Oh so very annoyed.  I know Being Angry At Something is pretty much how I am all the time, but this casus belli rather takes the biscuit, if not the whole packet.  Art!

O rly?

     Who on earth said that?  They ought to be slapped around the face with a rotten rainbow trout.  DICKENS CREATED SCROOGE.  That is all you need to know; Ebeneezer Scrooge is exactly as Ol' Chas created him, and never mind some present-day numpty trying to "Reinvent" the character or the tale, for which read "Muck about with and badly, too".  Critical reception of this latest take on "A Christmas Carol" has been very hostile, lambasting the swearing that's been inserted and how the cast mumble their lines.

A much better version

     One can't help but feel that someone has been taking lessons from "Scrooged" and not in a good way.  Worzil Gummidge, matey, Worzil Gummidge.

I See Tsar Putin Is Bloviating Again
"We've got hypersonic missiles!  We've got hypersonic missiles!  And you haven't!  Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!" boasted Dimya at a news conference.  He is consistent: you can tell when he's lying because his lips are moving.  
     Don't get me wrong: the Ruffians are extremely good at coming up with highly advanced prototype weapons; it's just in the execution (pardon the pun) they often fall down.  Remember the 1,200 T14 Armata tanks that were going to be the awe and terror of the West?  That actually turned out to be scaled back to 120, with about 12 in existence.

Very Gerry Anderson

     Thus we have the "Avangard" hypersonic missile system, which is supposedly capable of taking a non-ballistic trajectory and gliding over long distances before a terminal homing dive.  Art?

Artist's impression

     I think we've been here before, with the South Canadian MARV warhead.   This is a warhead or "Re-entry vehicle" that has control surfaces, so once released from the missile bus, it can glide to it's target over a very wide area and then come down in a terminal homing dive.

Unsurprisingly. pictures of MARVs are hard to find.

     I also seem to recall that the warhead impacts at something like Mach 12, which sounds pretty hyper to me.
     Now, if the Ruffians are actually deploying Avangard, one has to ask how many such systems will exist, because you can bet your buns that these big explodey things are going to cost an enormous amount each; Dimya's boasting is not really a sound basis for serious analytical judgement about the economics of these missiles.  Nor do we know if they work as advertised, and since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Conrad is quite happy to stay hungry.

Oooops!

Finally -
The nights are beginning to grow slightly shorter now that we've passed the Winter Equinox, which is always a good thing, since Conrad likes to be able to see exactly what Edna's getting up to on her late afternoon walks.  I shan't be indelicate but any dog owners will know what I mean.
     Speaking of which, I think it's about time I took madam for a trot.  Need to get my Fitbit statistics on the up!

Thus

*  Do you see - O you do