Some people are critical of my interested in warbirds, and other military subjects, such as tanks and other technology of war. I see their point, that it is sort of glorifying violence and death, but it's not really that simple.
I dislike conflict as much as anyone, but I also like cool technology, and some of the best tech we have came from the development of weapons. So I see this as a way to admire the machines without necessarily agreeing with their purpose.
And a lot of good has come from advances in military engineering. The most famous example is the way the Americans (and Russians to a lesser extent) used ex-Nazi rocket scientists to develop their space programs after the war. Without that, the US would never have to to the Moon as early as 1969.
So I don't apologise for my enthusiasm for these magnificent weapons of death and destruction. They are cool, and its just an unfortunate side-effect that their purpose involves death and suffering!
I usually write a blog post about once a week. The latest post can be viewed here: The Social Sciences: I hope you can see where my general frustration with social science comes from! (posted 2024-10-25 at 12:18:53). I do podcasts too!. You can listen to my latest podcast, here: OJB's Podcast 2024-08-22 Stirring Up Trouble: Let's just get every view out there and fairly debate them..