Interesting

Oh, do you like maps? Do you like data visualisation? Roll in Richard Edes Harrison’s 1940s work for Fortune. Being me, I especially love The World of ITT – beautiful colour, network visualisation, weird globe projections, and it’s horribly clear why supporting dictators in Madrid and Rio was so important to them. You can’t see the tentacles, fuelled by the 1945 US loan, trying to strangle C&W, though. (Thanks to Erik Lund’s awesome blog.)

Even if the Spanish housing market is far from reset, wages are falling, the banks are wrecked….those Spaniards with any cash crave house. My thinking here is that real estate is the natural form of investment for a low-trust society. What does this tell you about the UK?

Russia’s VDV Airborne Forces Command retains the capability to project by parachute an inflatable Orthodox cathedral with eight priests, a full set of ikons, administratively self-supporting for a predetermined period of time before ground resupply. (They say the package is 1 tonne, but they also say it’s delivered from an Il-76 with 40 tonnes capacity, and you see them jump from something else, I *think* an An24. Sneaky Russians.)

Time was when the government invented a problem and tried to rig the numbers. Now they invent the number and rig the problem to fit it. Very Soviet. (Prior Louise Casey content here.)

It’s one of those weeks when you need your list of aircraft carrier movements. Pity there’s not a similar “Where are the Jet Tankers?” site, but David Cenciotti’s awesome blog is pretty close. This map may help.

Low-quality source but christ, not dogs, please.

TYR music service:

and finally…this, from DM. Ah, gwan then you will you will.