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xthetenth posted:More to do with German small arms design than commonly noted? It's got much more similarity to the Garand that goes without mention than anything German. Fun fact- there are three different official origin stories for the design of the AK. All are covered in CJ Chiver's excellent book, 'The Gun', which also covers a decent amount of history with automatic arms development and the development/fielding of the M16, without being super spergy about either sub-topic. If you want a more generalized and technical book, Osprey publishing does pretty great work with their weapon series, which is constantly growing and covering new poo poo, everything from English Longbows and Katanas to the RPG and the FN MAG. They are awesome little brief histories that try to cover a lot of info in a short package, and are less than half the price of some of the other more detailed specialized books. If you are a war or weapon nerd, I highly recommend their poo poo.
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Dec 22, 2015 09:24
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One of Scotland's greatest national heroes, Robert Bruce, literally stabbed a potential supporter of his cause to death in a church when the latter laughed at his plans.
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Dec 22, 2015 13:51
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bulletsponge13 posted:Maybe it is just the nerd circles I run in, but everyone jumps to the commonality with elements of American design while ignoring the fact that Hugo loving Schmiesser (might have spelled that wrong) had been captured and was working at the arsenal where it was designed and the design has his fingerprints all over it. It was a genius of a bunch of good ideas, hammered into a good design for it's time and purpose- I'm not saying it isn't- but the myths surrounding it are loom pretty large. If this is a recommendation I second the recommendation. The Gun is excellent. I read it for a project I had this year, I have nothing but good things to say about it.
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Dec 22, 2015 14:43
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I see the milhist thread has been victorious in its war of conquest. We will be benevolent overlords and only occasionally shoot our pistols out the window.
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Dec 22, 2015 19:26
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Alkydere posted:As someone who plays War Thunder...no, I get enough of this naturally already. Needlessly huge honking gun. The Soviets put a gun with almost identical ballistics into a medium tank in 1943, but with a much smaller breech. And then, an even smaller gun with identical ballistics, just because. bulletsponge13 posted:Maybe it is just the nerd circles I run in, but everyone jumps to the commonality with elements of American design while ignoring the fact that Hugo loving Schmiesser (might have spelled that wrong) had been captured and was working at the arsenal where it was designed and the design has his fingerprints all over it. It was a genius of a bunch of good ideas, hammered into a good design for it's time and purpose- I'm not saying it isn't- but the myths surrounding it are loom pretty large. Schmeisser wasn't allowed to touch anything top secret. Soviet documents from the design bureau complain that he's completely useless and all he does is spread dissent among other German engineers there while whining about wanting more money.
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Dec 22, 2015 22:52
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Not a fun fact really, but a historical oddity. While browsing WIkipedia for information on the Cadeby mining disaster, I stumbled upon the 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning. Candymaker sends buddy to buy cheaper sugar alternative. He accidentally buys arsenic. No one notices. A candymaker and the seller immediately become sick but fail to notice a connection other than that their candy looks weird. It's sold cheap. 21 people die.
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Dec 24, 2015 07:58
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Arsenic in 19th century is a pretty fascinating subject. In addition to it being used as a miracle cure for all sorts of maladies, a wallpaper and textile dye, or as a pesticide, arsenic compounds were also a popular food additive for a time, used as green coloring. One of the most common compounds, the Scheele's green, became unfortunately associated with green-colored sweets in Scotland as in the second half of the 19th ct. Scottish people became extremely infatuated with the color green, and vendors happily turned to arsenic as a cheap dye. The country became saturated with arsenic-laced sweets and the following health crisis scarred the public consciousness in the region, going as far as to make green confectionery mostly unmarketable in Scotland for much of the 20th century. Though it should be noted that while Scotland was an extreme case due to a fad-inspired spike in the popularity of green foods, arsenic coloring was used pretty much world-wide.
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Dec 24, 2015 09:40
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Is that why they don't eat vegetables?
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Dec 24, 2015 13:26
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Somehow I stumbled on a book years ago called "Dirty little secrets of World War II." It's a fascinating read, has a bunch of fun facts and the like but it also has some really cool info. I'm really paraphrasing here, and someone could probably elaborate more because aid have to go back and read it, but France was totally fuckin prepared for Germany and the invasion. France spent millions and millions of dollars or whatever their currency was building huge fortified areas networked together underground. They did this along the border where Germany would "most likely" come in. When hey we're building this, it was advised not to worry about a certain area because "there's no way anyone could loving go through there with vehicles." So when Germany was going through he Netherlands and Belgium, France diverted the majority of their forces forward to be preemptive. However, through information or something I forget, Germany went through that small area that didn't get the fortified treatment. This is why France was taken so easily and so quickly during the war. The areas are still there today and can be visited to my knowledge. Now some pretty cool stuff for you guys. Albania is a country that has recently come from under the grasp of Turkish rule and communism. So much so at the roads are windy to prevent planes landing on them. I actually got to travel on their only highway which is still under construction. It only lasted about 20 miles when I was there. This change with the people, and the way things are done still hasn't fully developed into a "modern" utopia like we see in countries surrounding it like Greece and Italy. One of these things, which is finally going away is a "Battle Virgin." No, a Battle Virgin is not someone who grew up playing call of duty or whatever. It is a female, who took a vow of celibacy to protect their families name. Gender discrimination played (still does) a huge role in their society. Marriages would be arranged, men had all the power, and women were helpless with doing anything against it. In the Northern territories, if all the men in a family died, typically the eldest of the daughters could take a vow of celibacy and become a battle virgin, giving them all rights and privileges of men. This included working, goi to bath houses, spitting in public, and treating the females in your family like poo poo. It was typical to have them wash your feet or something when they came home. They were also viewed as men in public as well, more importantly. Since blood feuds were rampant, it wasn't uncommon for them to call hits on people or do it themselves. It wouldn't be too uncommon for a feuding family to have their heads be battle virgins due to wiping out the males on either side. This is a practice that is going away, naturally, as Albania is slowly shedding it's corrupt and strange way of trying to establish a democracy. Now speaking of blood feuds, over 600 were waged against the awesomely names Zog I, Kin of the Albanians. He also reportedly survived 55 different assassination attempts. He even fired back at during one attempt. He also was never assassinated, instead fleeing in the 1930s and remaining in exile.
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Dec 25, 2015 08:16
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Soulex posted:Somehow I stumbled on a book years ago called "Dirty little secrets of World War II." It's a fascinating read, has a bunch of fun facts and the like but it also has some really cool info. I'm really paraphrasing here, and someone could probably elaborate more because aid have to go back and read it, but France was totally fuckin prepared for Germany and the invasion. France spent millions and millions of dollars or whatever their currency was building huge fortified areas networked together underground. They did this along the border where Germany would "most likely" come in. When hey we're building this, it was advised not to worry about a certain area because "there's no way anyone could loving go through there with vehicles." So when Germany was going through he Netherlands and Belgium, France diverted the majority of their forces forward to be preemptive. However, through information or something I forget, Germany went through that small area that didn't get the fortified treatment. This is why France was taken so easily and so quickly during the war. The areas are still there today and can be visited to my knowledge. That would be the Maginot Line. The French didn't trust the Germans after The Great War, especially after watching rather aggressive fascism start coming to power there. So they built a massive loving wall of guns and bunkers and fortresses. Basically a giant letter saying "You want to take us, you're going to have to relive the last miserable, pointless loving siege against us, only we've got 100 times better defenses already set up than those lovely old trenches." The Germans looked at that, said "gently caress that" and drove through Belgium. Due to political reasons (wanting to avoid fiddling with Belgium's neutrality), and the cost of the building damned thing limiting to how much border could really be entrenched the Third Reich was able to steamroll through lighter encampments instead of running headfirst into the wall of reinforced bunkers along the actual French-German border. Turned out that however formidable the Maginot Line was from the front none of the defenses were really designed to defend from the rear.
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Dec 25, 2015 08:34
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Yet another history thread has gone down that golden road of re-fighting WWI/WWII. RIP Thread, we hardly knew ye.
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Dec 25, 2015 09:33
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Samovar posted:One of Scotland's greatest national heroes, Robert Bruce, literally stabbed a potential supporter of his cause to death in a church when the latter laughed at his plans. A cool detail I once read about this was that after stabbing this dude Bruce rushes out of the church, dismayed, and tell his trusted man, Armstrong "I'v stabbed this guy and I think he's dead!" (because stabbing people in churches was a big no-no back then). Armstrong understands this in his own way, says "I'll make sure." draws his sword, marches into the church and finishes the bleeding guy. "I'll make sure" is still supposedly in the family crest of that particular noble house.
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Dec 25, 2015 10:30
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Khazar-khum posted:Yet another history thread has gone down that golden road of re-fighting WWI/WWII. dsyp
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Dec 25, 2015 14:26
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You could post content instead of moaning. Like how they've found a coin that says, "Hiskia, king of Judah", that dates back to 600 BC. It's pretty cool to have some archeological evidence for the Old Testament for once.
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Dec 25, 2015 14:50
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Not a fun fact really, but a historical oddity. While browsing WIkipedia for information on the Cadeby mining disaster, I stumbled upon the 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning. The lesson of this is to never buy candy from someone named "Humbug-Billy".
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Dec 26, 2015 19:42
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Throughout much of the '90s until his death in 2001, Mohammad Atef was al-Qaeda's second-in-command. When al-Qaeda would organize volleyball games, he and Osama bin Laden weren't allowed to play on the same team because they were both very tall, dominant players.
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Dec 27, 2015 01:55
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Ego-bot posted:Throughout much of the '90s until his death in 2001, Mohammad Atef was al-Qaeda's second-in-command. When al-Qaeda would organize volleyball games, he and Osama bin Laden weren't allowed to play on the same team because they were both very tall, dominant players. Ah yes, the twin towers themselves.
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Dec 27, 2015 02:02
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steinrokkan posted:Arsenic in 19th century is a pretty fascinating subject. In addition to it being used as a miracle cure for all sorts of maladies, a wallpaper and textile dye, or as a pesticide, arsenic compounds were also a popular food additive for a time, used as green coloring. There's some evidence that Napoleon's death was due to poisoning by his Scheele's green wallpaper. RC and Moon Pie posted:Not a fun fact really, but a historical oddity. While browsing WIkipedia for information on the Cadeby mining disaster, I stumbled upon the 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning. A somewhat similar incident led to the FDA's current role. Some people found that a chemical called sulfanilimide could be useful against bacterial infections. Naturally, people decided to start selling it and looked for a way to make it taste better because well, it's medicine. A company called Massengill came up with a solution called Elixer Sulfanilimide made up of 10% sulfanilimide, 16% water, and 72% diethylene glycol. Diethylene glycol is sweet-tasting, but also toxic. 105 people died before investigators figured out the cause. The drug laws at the time only prevented mislabeling of the contents of a product, so Massengill only paid a small fine for false advertising. Public outrage over this led to Congress passing an act that requires companies to ensure the safety of their drugs with the FDA given power to regulate this process.
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Dec 27, 2015 05:17
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Ego-bot posted:Throughout much of the '90s until his death in 2001, Mohammad Atef was al-Qaeda's second-in-command. When al-Qaeda would organize volleyball games, he and Osama bin Laden weren't allowed to play on the same team because they were both very tall, dominant players. I thought maybe this was a joke, but it seems to be true! It's always weird to imagine evil people like that doing fun everyday things like playing volleyball and eventually having to institute a rule to stop the two best players from being on the same team. It's the same with Hitler, it's just weird to hear about everyday human stuff when your mind can't really imagine them being anything like a normal human, but obviously in many aspects they were.
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Dec 27, 2015 09:09
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One of the most terrifying things I recall reading about Stalin was that he was REALLY good with kids - not in any 'paedo-allusion' stuff (you can get that from him being 20 years older than his first wife), but that kids of his immediate circle used to love him because he was... Cheekily child-like with them? Like (before he came into power) taking them to movies or having food-fights at the dinner tables. Apparently the parents were terrified the kids might let something slip about them because of this, too.
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Dec 27, 2015 10:21
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TWIST FIST posted:There's some evidence that Napoleon's death was due to poisoning by his Scheele's green wallpaper. There's more evidence that he died of stomach cancer.
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Dec 27, 2015 10:24
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Napoleon died from eating his wallpaper, confirmed
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Dec 27, 2015 10:25
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Samovar posted:One of the most terrifying things I recall reading about Stalin was that he was REALLY good with kids Why is this terrifying?
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Dec 27, 2015 10:34
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Talking of historic cosmetics, the plant deadly nightshade used to be used in eyedrops by women to dilate the pupils of the eyes to make them appear 'seductive'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
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Dec 27, 2015 10:38
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Comrade Koba posted:Why is this terrifying? Because people are usually only either bad or good.
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Dec 27, 2015 10:47
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Comrade Koba posted:Why is this terrifying? I would say it was because Stalin was one of the worst mass-murderers in modern times, and almost all major autocrats at that time, Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Mao... when they are described usually you can see a lot of social isolation in them. They were never really noted as being sweet or nice in private with anyone other than who they knew intimately. I just found the idea of a person who could happily send people to die in their thousands for nothing other than paranoid fantasies or unrealistic ideologies to be seen as a benevolent-uncle figure, and NOT due to propaganda reasons, as pretty unnerving. Samovar has a new favorite as of 13:33 on Dec 27, 2015 |
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Dec 27, 2015 10:48
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PiratePing posted:
Redwall - The Graphic Novel. Um, have some relevant copypaste... quote:Swimming at the Beach was illegal in Australia until 1902.
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Dec 27, 2015 11:04
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OctoberBlues posted:I thought maybe this was a joke, but it seems to be true! It's always weird to imagine evil people like that doing fun everyday things like playing volleyball and eventually having to institute a rule to stop the two best players from being on the same team. It's the same with Hitler, it's just weird to hear about everyday human stuff when your mind can't really imagine them being anything like a normal human, but obviously in many aspects they were. I'm picturing a legion of human Bothans exfiltrating in an Iraqi Dunkirk to rush to the pentagon with a top secret intelligence discovery re: osama bin laden "where is he? where is he??" "i dont know but we have crucial new data for next season's al-qaeda fantasy volleyball loadout"
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Dec 27, 2015 11:06
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Sir, we've decrypted the secret note. It says, "See me on the court Osama, unless ur chicken bawk bawk"
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Dec 27, 2015 11:11
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Comrade Koba posted:Why is this terrifying? The children probably didn't know quite what they were dealing with when interacting with Stalin. They were playing with a man that would happily have them murdered when they became adults for pretty much any reason at all. Aside from that what happens if they grow up around Stalin and think that his policies and politics are completely normal? What kinds of monsters would he end up raising? Think about it for a second; would you let your children play with Stalin?
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Dec 27, 2015 11:50
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Samovar posted:I just found the idea a of a person who could happily send people to die in their thousands for nothing other than paranoid fantasies or unrealistic ideologies to be seen as a benevolent-uncle figure, and NOT due to propaganda reasons, as pretty unnerving. Well, the human mind is capable of pretty impressive rationalization. People managing to be perfectly normal, loving fathers and family members while spending their days signing death warrants isn't exactly unheard of. This even extends to people actively participating in atrocities themselves. One of the more unnerving videos I've seen is an interview with a female former Soviet NKVD officer. The sweetest little old granny you could imagine, wearing a flowery dress and playing with her grandchildren and putting on the hugest friendly smile as she talked about how she executed rows of German POW's. ToxicSlurpee posted:Think about it for a second; would you let your children play with Stalin? If he was as nice to children as everyone says - yeah, absolutely. Doesn't mean I'd generally want to have my potential children grow up in Stalinist Russia, though.
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Dec 27, 2015 12:04
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AnonSpore posted:Sir, we've decrypted the secret note. It says, "See me on the court Osama, unless ur chicken bawk bawk" "SIR! THEY'VE STARTED DOING THE TOP GUN HIGH FIVE!" Comrade Koba posted:Why is this terrifying? I can speak from second hand experience here. I have family who lived in communist times, and you wouldn't speak about anything concerning negative thoughts about the institution to anyone. Not your wife, your closest friend since birth, no one. This didn't stop people from doing so as they would eventually find themselves gone from the society they were once in, and into a more prison like one. Now, we've seen Bill Cosby's "Kids say the darnedest things," and know that poo poo can be implanted in their impressions minds easily. Someone digging for information could find it easily such as asking about tv shows or radio shows that the kid liked. If they mentioned anything besides government regulated stuff, it was contraband and the parents could easily see themselves punished for it.
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Dec 27, 2015 12:06
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Say Nothing posted:Talking of historic cosmetics, the plant deadly nightshade used to be used in eyedrops by women to dilate the pupils of the eyes to make them appear 'seductive'. Uh, we still use deadly nightshade (well, atropine extracted from it) to dilate pupils.
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Dec 27, 2015 12:48
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Mans posted:Ah yes, the twin towers themselves. 
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Dec 27, 2015 13:38
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Tasteful Dickpic posted:So he was a Dane is what you're telling me. I will axe you!  RC and Moon Pie posted:Not a fun fact really, but a historical oddity. While browsing WIkipedia for information on the Cadeby mining disaster, I stumbled upon the 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning. I'm sorry if this was mentioned already, but candy has historically racked up a fair share of kills: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood
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Dec 27, 2015 14:44
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Samovar posted:I would say it was because Stalin was one of the worst mass-murderers in modern times, and almost all major autocrats at that time, Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Mao... when they are described usually you can see a lot of social isolation in them. They were never really noted as being sweet or nice in private with anyone other than who they knew intimately. I remember reading a book that had a lot of quotes and stories from Stalins children and family members and they all said he was a terrifying, cruel, and distant man in private who grew more and more convinced his own family was plotting against him as he approached his death. I wouldn't really consider him different from the other people you mentioned. Hell, Hitler was at least noted as being capable of tenderness with people close to him.
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Dec 27, 2015 14:56
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Aesop Poprock posted:I remember reading a book that had a lot of quotes and stories from Stalins children and family members and they all said he was a terrifying, cruel, and distant man in private who grew more and more convinced his own family was plotting against him as he approached his death. I wouldn't really consider him different from the other people you mentioned. Hell, Hitler was at least noted as being capable of tenderness with people close to him. To expand on this: "Stalin married his first wife Ekaterina Svanidze in 1906, with whom he had a son, Yakov. Yakov shot himself because of Stalin's harshness toward him, but survived. After this, Stalin said, "He can't even shoot straight."[342] Yakov served in the Red Army during World War II and was captured by the Germans. They offered to exchange him for Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, who had surrendered after Stalingrad, but Stalin turned the offer down, stating, "You have in your hands not only my son Yakov, but millions of my sons. Either you free them all or my son will share their fate."[343] Afterwards, Yakov is said to have committed suicide, running into an electric fence in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was being held.[344] With his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva Stalin had a son, Vasiliy, and a daughter, Svetlana. Nadezhda died in 1932, officially of illness. She may have committed suicide by shooting herself after a quarrel with Stalin, leaving a suicide note which according to their daughter was "partly personal, partly political."[347] According to A&E Biography, there is also a belief among some Russians that Stalin himself murdered his wife after the quarrel, which apparently took place at a dinner in which Stalin tauntingly flicked cigarettes across the table at her."
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Dec 27, 2015 15:06
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Samovar posted:One of the most terrifying things I recall reading about Stalin was that he was REALLY good with kids - not in any 'paedo-allusion' stuff (you can get that from him being 20 years older than his first wife), but that kids of his immediate circle used to love him because he was... Cheekily child-like with them? Like (before he came into power) taking them to movies or having food-fights at the dinner tables. 
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Dec 27, 2015 15:32
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Samovar posted:I would say it was because Stalin was one of the worst mass-murderers in modern times, and almost all major autocrats at that time, Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Mao... when they are described usually you can see a lot of social isolation in them. They were never really noted as being sweet or nice in private with anyone other than who they knew intimately. Mao didn't clean his dick except by loving virgins.
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Dec 27, 2015 15:36
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ToxicSlurpee posted:
I would let Baby Hitler play with Stalin.
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