The 14th Military History Carnival is up

The 14th Military History Blog Carnival is up at Investigations of a Dog.
The theme is "Contested Boundaries" and Gavin Robinson has assembled lots of interesting posts not just on disputed borders, but also other boundaries (when is a 'terrorist' a 'freedom fighter', what constitutes a 'war crime', the roles of men and women in conflicts, etc).

The next edition of the Military History Carnival will be right here on 14th June. Please email submissions to me at alunadler at yahoo dot co dot uk, or use the submission form. I am thinking of some potential themes such as "eyewitness history" - feel free to make a suggestion for a theme...

Cardinal Wolsey's Blogstats for April

Cardinal Wolsey's blog stats for April in case you are interested:

Visits: 821
Pageloads: 1292
New visits: 87%

Of the 821 unique visits,
337 were from the USA (Hi to all readers in the former colonies),
247 from UK,
63 from Canada,
49 from Australia,
14 from France,
13 from Sweden,
and 98 from other countries.

Interestingly, no visits from China. I recall that last year, or maybe 2006, there was a burst of activity from China, including a tractor factory, but then the hits mysteriously dried up. Could this be related to someone taking a dim view on any blogs featuring rebellions I wonder???

In the US, New York State just beat California in numbers of visits to this blog. Cardinal Wolsey will be sending an educational mission to a number of the flat windy States where the people have not yet seen the light.

Apart from the home page, the most popular page in April was the post on the BBC's Purple Haze Medieval Mix.

St. George's Day Kebab and The Bard's Birthday

April 23 is not only St.George's Day (complete with themed websites and merchandising), but also the date that Shakespeare's birthday in 1564 is celebrated.

We don't actually know his exact birth date, but he did expire on 23rd April 1616, so there is a neat symmetry.

Listen to two excellent new poems commissioned for St.George's Day on BBC Radio 4 site.

Finally, the Daily Telegraph tries to stir up patriotic feeling with a cheeky map showing an alleged EU plot to merge the south coast of England with northern France into a new "Manche" region. About time Calais was back in English hands if you ask me.