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Nowadays the US only delivers freedom by missile.
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Apr 30, 2016 10:48
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cheerfullydrab posted:Also you can only cancel your order up until some arbitrary point in the midcourse phase Cancellations are also provided via missile
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Apr 30, 2016 11:29
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Crossposting.Platystemon posted:The WWII U.S. Army booklet 112 Gripes About the French is good reading.
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Apr 30, 2016 12:58
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Cythereal posted:Crossposting. That was a mighty interesting read, thanks.
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Apr 30, 2016 14:56
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ltkerensky posted:That was a mighty interesting read, thanks. Agreed. I haven't studied much into the business of occupation itself and this was interesting insight.
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Apr 30, 2016 15:05
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So a copy of The Killer Angels wandered into my hand and I'm about halfway through. It's decently good reading, but how good is the actual accuracy of what's being portrayed? Besides the obvious stuff like the dialogue being made up. While I'm asking people to do background on authors for me, how well viewed is Erik Larson? I really liked Dead Wake and In the Garden of Beasts, and considering he's mostly just transcribing primary sources it naturally seems compelling, but I haven't ever had the heart to find out how good his research actually is. Pretty good for a non-historian? Terrible?
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Apr 30, 2016 15:09
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Xiahou Dun posted:So a copy of The Killer Angels wandered into my hand and I'm about halfway through. It's decently good reading, but how good is the actual accuracy of what's being portrayed? Besides the obvious stuff like the dialogue being made up. In TKA, the nuts and bolts of the battle are all pretty accurate, although he made some concessions for the sake of storytelling (ie, the 20th Maine being on the line on the third day). The perspectives of the characters are largely fictional though; that was done to highlight various themes and whatnot. Each character is something of a metaphor for some part of society at the time and so naturally they're kind of...single minded, I suppose, while real actual people (and the historical situation for that matter) are a bit more nuanced. We had a discussion about TKA in this thread quite a while ago and I made kind of an effortpost about it if you want to know more of my thoughts. I like Larson a lot and as far as I can tell both Dead Wake and Devil in the White City are pretty accurate historically and very well researched. His prose tends towards the...dramatic, I suppose, and he doesn't really claim to be without bias, but that is to be expected I think given his background and intent. I think they're great popular histories and we need more such things.
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Apr 30, 2016 15:37
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Thanqol posted:They used a missile to deliver mail? What? Why? Because between ww2 and the 1970's the US had a shocking amount of mad scientists on its payroll, hence poo poo like mail carrying missiles, using atom bombs for infrastrucure projects, trying to make a flying saucer shaped hovercraft, and project pluto (which is insane enough to make a james bond villain turn it down).
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Apr 30, 2016 15:53
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I'm not quite understanding how you get the mail out of the missile. Does it thunk into the ground like a lawn dart or something? What if it misses and hits somebody?
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Apr 30, 2016 16:21
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Ainsley McTree posted:I'm not quite understanding how you get the mail out of the missile. *thunk* *whirr* *boom* It's raining mail! Hallelujah!
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Apr 30, 2016 16:28
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"Boy, I sure do hope my precious porcelean statue of a swan is alright through!"
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Apr 30, 2016 16:30
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Nenonen posted:It was like the Amazon delivery drones of the time, but actually cool. Also: it existed.
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Apr 30, 2016 18:33
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HEY GAL posted:Because the Medal of Honor used to be the only award there was, besides the Purple Heart.
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Apr 30, 2016 19:35
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T___A posted:Purple Heart was not awarded until 1932 and only retroactively applied to acts committed after April 1917. Eh, kinda-sorta. It was a revival of the revolutionary war "Badge of Military Merit" that was essentially never awarded (something like 5 of them). The original was a purple heart that said "Merit" on it. That's also why the modern medal says "for military merit" on the back side of it. It was essentially a new medal but they revived a really old one when designing it.
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Apr 30, 2016 20:31
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Cyrano4747 posted:Eh, kinda-sorta. It was a revival of the revolutionary war "Badge of Military Merit" that was essentially never awarded (something like 5 of them). The original was a purple heart that said "Merit" on it. That's also why the modern medal says "for military merit" on the back side of it. I heard that the US army ordered so many in preparation for landing on mainland Japan back in '45 that we're still using that stock. True/False?
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Apr 30, 2016 20:33
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T___A posted:Purple Heart was not awarded until 1932 and only retroactively applied to acts committed after April 1917.
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Apr 30, 2016 20:39
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Grand Prize Winner posted:I heard that the US army ordered so many in preparation for landing on mainland Japan back in '45 that we're still using that stock. True/False? Not any more, but we had to start making them again quite recently. I want to say something like 2012. Before that we were burning through the last of the WW2 stock.
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Apr 30, 2016 20:44
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Grand Prize Winner posted:I heard that the US army ordered so many in preparation for landing on mainland Japan back in '45 that we're still using that stock. True/False? true. http://www.stripes.com/blogs/the-rumor-doctor/the-rumor-doctor-1.104348/are-purple-hearts-from-1945-still-being-awarded-1.116756 e: OK, it's a 2010 article so maybe no longer true.
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Apr 30, 2016 20:46
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100 Years Ago It's the 24th of April. In Ireland, the Easter Rising begins; the German Navy celebrates with another raid on the south coast of England. In Mesopotamia there's a wonderfully buccaneering (if inevitably doomed) attempt to buy another month of life for the garrison. The Kaiser has decided to put his submarines back onto Prize Rules, abandoning for the moment any attempt to attack British and French merchant steamers. Edward Mousley is back with us, although in extreme pain and with his spirits firmly at the bottom of the latrines; Robert Pelissier enjoys some moments to consider American politics at leisure while at a training course; and Maximilian Mugge admires a marathon session of three-card Brag in his hut.
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May 1, 2016 00:02
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Upon witnessing the missile's landing, Summerfield stated, "This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation." Summerfield proclaimed the event to be "of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world", and predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail." ... Rocket expert Willy Ley speculated in 1954 that using small cruise missiles to rapidly delivery mail might be possible for as little as three times the rate for airmail, in part because they could be reusable. Technologists like Robert Zubrin, of Mars Society fame, think that rocket mail, or at least ultra-elite business package delivery, may become commercially viable with the development of fully reusable launch systems, particularly single-stage to orbit vehicles. Such systems would allow package delivery anywhere in the world in 30–45 minutes. from Wikipedia. Goddamn it, why do we not live in this timeline? I'd leave my house and half a dozen missiles would be sticking out of my lawn, full of pizza coupons and bank statements.
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May 1, 2016 00:26
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Only thrice the cost of airmail!
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May 1, 2016 00:34
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So, the value of the missile mail experiment should be measured by the market value of the postage artefacts available today; sadly it seems that there was no unique postage printed for the missile dispatch, and that means missile mail envelopes sell for pretty low prices, around 15 USD. Sad.
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May 1, 2016 00:36
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Bob Zubrin thinks it might work? Investors might want to do a 360 and walk away.
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May 1, 2016 00:48
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OfficialGBSCaliph posted:Only thrice the cost of airmail! 
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May 1, 2016 00:56
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Thanqol posted:Upon witnessing the missile's landing, Summerfield stated, "This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation." Summerfield proclaimed the event to be "of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world", and predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail." Don't forget the jobs it would create in the Postal Service's Ballistic Missile Divison.  (And probably in its legal teams.)
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May 1, 2016 01:00
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pizzas are not a delivery food in this timeline, but cannoli and burritos are v popular
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May 1, 2016 01:02
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HEY GAL posted:pizzas are not a delivery food in this timeline, but cannoli and burritos are v popular I'm imagining some sort of pizza dough spinner parachute that smacks into a tray with toppings on touchdown, then is cooked off residual heat.
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May 1, 2016 01:12
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HEY GAL posted:pizzas are not a delivery food in this timeline, but cannoli and burritos are v popular
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May 1, 2016 02:24
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Thanqol posted:in part because they could be reusable Now how does this work? Aren't they gonna get a little scuffed up on the landing or something? Is the recipient charged with bringing the missile back to their local post office after getting the package? Sounds like a PITA to be honest
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May 1, 2016 02:42
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bewbies posted:In TKA, the nuts and bolts of the battle are all pretty accurate, although he made some concessions for the sake of storytelling (ie, the 20th Maine being on the line on the third day). The perspectives of the characters are largely fictional though; that was done to highlight various themes and whatnot. Each character is something of a metaphor for some part of society at the time and so naturally they're kind of...single minded, I suppose, while real actual people (and the historical situation for that matter) are a bit more nuanced. We had a discussion about TKA in this thread quite a while ago and I made kind of an effortpost about it if you want to know more of my thoughts. Thanks! So I can take the rough details of the battle as correct but should check a real source if I ever make a claim, take the personal reasoning for decisions as vague reconstruction and anything interpersonal beyond basic poo poo like Lee and Longstreet being bros as made up? Sounds about what I'd expect and it's a fun read. I'll hunt down your effort post for a full break down in a bit. You wouldn't happen to remember a vague idea of when it was would you? Just so I can scroll more effectively since you post a good amount. And yeah that was about as good as I'd hoped for Larson. Definitely more pop than history, but I'm glad the meat there is real. And god drat is he readable. No comment on In the Garden of Beasts though. Have you not read it or is that insult by omission or...?
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May 1, 2016 03:00
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darthbob88 posted:Except burritos already have a well-established delivery method. From a San Francisco cart to your door in less than two hours. Not gonna lie, I hope Donald Trump has done enough damage to the fabric of reality that this leaks into our timeline.
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May 1, 2016 03:00
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I went to a civil war reenactment today as part of my civil war historiography class (don't ask what a reenactment has to do with historiography, the professor teaching it is best friends with a member of the cannon crew and brought us along for fun). I'm reposting it from a chat thread so excuse the lack of capitalization. Here's about 20 of the best photos i took today  Union parade column  cannon crew demonstration, iirc this one was a six pounder  front shot of cannon with my history professor looking goofy in the back  and we're on to the battle, confederate skirmishers seize a very poorly placed/design fence  confederate cannon getting to fire  union regiments show up and assemble  the cannon from before, this fucker was loud as poo poo  the confederate batteries reply  union battle line advances  the confederate cavalry arrives  the dude in front died like 8 times, the running theory is that he was the only one that knew how to fall off a horse without breaking a bone   union sharpshooters arrive on the field  reposistioning the cannon  like three seconds later a confederate cannon killed about a third of the guys in this shot  the union cavalry belatedly arrives on the field  and is just as quickly driven off    the confederate cavalry guy from earlier, i think this was his final death  stacked arms in the confederate camp  confederate three pounder (it's actually an old AA gun from a WW1 battleship re purposed)  sharpshooters rifle with scope  snipings a good job mate Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 03:34 on May 1, 2016 |
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May 1, 2016 03:32
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reenactment seems pretty relevant to historiography to me 
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May 1, 2016 03:44
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Raskolnikov38 posted:photos from a time traveler Dude you've gotta warn them about Lincoln and Ford's theatre before it's too late! edit: I didn't read the captions. boy, is my face red.
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May 1, 2016 03:51
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Grand Prize Winner posted:Dude you've gotta warn them about Lincoln and Ford's theatre before it's too late! There was actually a dude as Lincoln wandering around that you could talk to.
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May 1, 2016 03:57
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Raskolnikov38 posted:There was actually a dude as Lincoln wandering around that you could talk to. As tempting as warning him might be, causality is not to be tampered with lightly.
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May 1, 2016 04:04
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sullat posted:As tempting as warning him might be, causality is not to be tampered with lightly. Lincoln would be too busy killing zombies anyway.  I see those cavalry operate according to Fall of the Samurai rules.
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May 1, 2016 04:12
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Klaus88 posted:Lincoln would be too busy killing vampires anyway. Fixed that for you.
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May 1, 2016 04:53
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Any Kraut-speakers ITT know the pronunciation of Sylt? My dumb English-speaking mind says it should sound like "Silt" but I assume that's wrong.
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May 1, 2016 06:07
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ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:Any Kraut-speakers ITT know the pronunciation of Sylt? My dumb English-speaking mind says it should sound like "Silt" but I assume that's wrong. Blagh I wouldn't know how to explain the Y. The pronunciation key says 'as in shoot (scottish)' but ehhh?
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May 1, 2016 08:16
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