Andy Young who runs Siberian Light – The Russian Blog, writes in to point us to his post about a long forgotten battle fought between Japan and the Soviet Union in the opening days of World War II. Forgotten, but so significant that it literall altered the course of history.

In August 1939, just weeks before Hitler invaded Poland, the Soviet Union and Japan fought a massive tank battle on the Mongolian border – the largest the world had ever seen.

Under the then unknown Georgy Zhukov, the Soviets won a crushing victory at the batte of Khalkhin-Gol (known in Japan as the Nomonhan Incident). Defeat persuaded the Japanese to expand into the Pacific, where they saw the United States as a weaker opponent than the Soviet Union. If the Japanese had not lost at Khalkhin Gol, they may never have attacked Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese decision to expand southwards also meant that the Soviet Eastern flank was secured for the duration of the war. Instead of having to fight on two fronts, the Soviets could mass their troops – under the newly promoted General Zhukov – against the threat of Nazi Germany in the West.

In terms of its strategic impact, the battle of Khalkhin Gol was one of the most decisive battles of the Second World War, but no-one has ever heard of it. Why?

Read the rest of the post here.

Just be clear before you start reading this that I am not labouring under the effects of any mind-altering substances.

Imagine your dolphins somehow ingest some sharp plastic shards that played havoc with their insides and put them off their food. What would you do?

I know what I’d do. Of course, I’d call the world’s tallest man, Bao Xishun (who’s 2.36m tall – 7ft 8.95in), and ask him to stick his long ol’ arms down the dolphins’ throat and into their stomach and hoick those bits right out of there.

And it seems the veterinarians at the aquarium in Fushun, Liaoning province, China, had exactly the same brainwave.

Damn. . . I’ll bet you this guy has that Ghengis Khan gene that we talked about here the other day. . .

On Monday, more than 40 police officers, including those from the Forensic Department, went to the crime scene at Subang Dam, Puncak Alam in Selangor, where they found bone fragments believed to be that of Altantuya in some bushes.

Police believe she was shot twice and her body blown to bits.

It is understood that C4 explosives were used to blow up her body in an effort to destroy evidence.

Found some amazing information about Genghis Khan and his clan that indicates the great conqueror was as adept at creating new human life as he was in snuffing it out (it iis said he helped halve China’s 13th-century population to 60 million people).

[Q]uite a few of us [are carrying] the conqueror’s DNA around. A genetic study done by Oxford geneticist Brian Sykes shows that 16 million people worldwide, eight percent of Asian men, are descended from the prolific Khan, who it turns out did more than put whole cities to the sword. The Khan had four legitimate sons, but it seems he had many, many more progeny than history records. And his four sons were known to be prolific as well.