Nobel Peace Prize is now officially...meaningless

..but it is not a new thing for the Nobel commission.

To be fair, his reaction here seems genuine, and far more realistic than many around the globe.


BTW...this fact is even more confusing...

"The deadline for nominations is Feb. 1, meaning the president was nominated after being in office for just 11 days.

Source

I decided to take notes on my iTouch as I read my book at the Starbucks in Target today...after reading just two pages of the book I am currently reading, I had the following notes....

First mention of a gun in 1313. First pictoral representation of a gun is from about 1326.

"...by the end of the fourteenth century, cannons were being widely manufactured across Europe." (Crowley 86)

So why do the Byzantines not have them? (or if they do, why do they not have enough of them to allow for the full defense of the city in 1453?)

"Technical mercenaries sold their skill in metal casting to the highest bidder." (Crowley 87)

A.Q. Khan anyone? (Frantz All)

If the weapons were not only known, but also fairly accessible, why didn't first order military powers readily embrace them for both defensive and offensive purposes? The reason seems to be, as pointed out by Roger Crowley, th early use of gunpowder weapons was not "obviously" advantageous.

"In practical terms the benefits of early gunpowder weapons were dubious: field artillery present at the Battle of Agincourt beside the longbow made little material difference." (Crowley 87)

Why was it not obvious? The next quote really does sum it up well...

"The weapons themselves were cumbersome, tedious to prepare, impossible to aim with any accuracy, and as dangerous to their crews as to the enemy." (Crowley 87)

A modern-day parallell might be to ask the question, "North Korea...nuclear weapons...who is in more danger... Us, or them?" (my question...not a quote...but the framework for this question came from reading most of these articles)


Here are the two books I referenced...and if I were creating a blog, I would also link to the Foreign Policy magazine articles individually to assure that I was properly crediting those who sparked my question.)

Crowley, Roger. 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the clash of Islam and the West. New York: Hyperion. 2005.

Frantz, Douglas and Catherine Collins. The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him. New York: Hachette Book Group. 2007.

These notes came from reading from reading multiple sources beforehand, and then encountering Crowley's words...this, with just a little more research, could support the writing of several blogs.

This is how you start the process.

Source for cited quotes