The Time the U.S. Invaded a Japanese Submarine Base… in Alaska?
An absolutely fascinating but little-known story—described as a “forgotten theater” by the U.S. Navy itself—is the tale of Kiska and Attu, Alaska: two remote Aleutian islands where the Japanese military established a submarine base during World War II. The islands—surprisingly close to the outer edge of the Japanese archipelago—were to serve as a landing point…
Craving a new military science fiction thrillride? Pick up these books
Terms of Enlistment and Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos are entertaining military SF fare, hitting all the same chords as John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. Author Marko Kloos introduces a stagnant human population on Earth, a powerful military apparatus and a formidable alien threat that pushes his central protagonist, Andrew Greyson, to his limits.…
Can Portland Fix a Building That Pretty Much Everyone Despises?
It’s basically a Portlandia sketch: What if a city held a rally to save a building in trouble and no one came? As part of our series Preservation Battle, we look at significant structures at a crossroads, and today we’re examining Portland, Oregon’s very-endangered—yet almost-universally-hated—Portland Building. Designed in 1982 by Target teapot-designing architect Michael Graves,…
