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You want a strange fish? (not actually a fish but a mollusc) I present the Cuttlefish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish quote:Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone.
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Nov 27, 2016 20:26
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Unkempt posted:Mmm. A scented candle, I assume. Well, the Candlefish is a type of Smelt.
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Nov 27, 2016 22:24
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Yvonmukluk posted:Also, Churchill's writings (books, articles, etc.) are credited Winston S. Churchill, since there was an American novelist who was also called Winston Churchill, and so Winston Spencer Churchill used his middle initial to differentiate himself. Churchill's mother was also American, which a lot of people often forget.
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Nov 27, 2016 23:15
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A White Guy posted:Shaxspear, Shakespeare, Shakspar are all totally ok spellings of his name. 16th century English was..um, well, kind of a mess. That's what happens when your get the grammar and spelling from repurposed Old Norse but the actual pronunciation undergoes a huge change because a whole bunch of Normans showed up and took over. It's kind of amazing that English exists today in the form it does, because it's been in a state of linguistic chaos since the Angles decided they wanted to live near Londinium. Letters are cool F V U W and Y all go back to the Phoenician Y. By the classical era F is distinct in Latin but V and U are still the same thing, same with I and J, so it's IVLIVS CAESAR saying VENI VIDI VICI. Wikipedia says the V / U split didn't come til the 14th century. in Chaucer at least it's still all "haue thee a torde from myne arsch" etc. (paraphrasd)
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Nov 28, 2016 00:55
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Baron Corbyn posted:They do but if the piggy bank is completely full, the coins block that hole so it's easier to hit it with a hammer. Brachiating tangent to tangent, "piggy banks" derive their shape - and their name - from pygg, which is the kind of clay that they had been made of. It's a visual pun.
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Nov 28, 2016 03:03
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Wheat Loaf posted:When the Far East Party was making its perilous journey back to camp from its trek to the eastern parts of Antarctica, consuming the remains of their sled dogs (particularly the livers) is believed to have contributed to a severe illness which almost killed Sir Douglas Mawson and did contribute to the death of Dr Xavier Mertz. They were blinded and poisoned by an overdose of vitamin A, which livers are rich in, and livers of polar animals (including Husky dogs) especially so A dog that won't get eaten in a polar expedition, no matter how bad things go:  I love Titina  She is in virtually all photos of Umberto Nobile: She  is  everywhere  Crew group photos   Photos of the makeshift camp in the arctic, among the survivors of the Italia crash   Everywhere  Nobile is forced by his insurer to be rescued before his crew, but does he truly leave alone?  Look at her, in her own tiny little circle in this postcard of the Norge and its crew, I wonder if she was the inspiration for Tintin's dog:  She was a stray, adopted by Nobile as a puppy. She was named after the song, Io cerco Titina, Italian cover of French hit Je cherche apres Titine:  ... now better known in Charlie Chaplin's gibberish cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeE1amkKuBU
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Nov 28, 2016 03:42
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Wheat Loaf posted:Churchill's mother was also American, which a lot of people often forget. Also 'Spencer' was part of his surname, Spencer-Churchill. His actual middle name was Leonard. This is interesting only because other famous members of the Spencer family, of which the Spencer-Churchills are a branch, include his (slightly distant) cousin Lady Diana Spencer aka the Princess of Wales. Spencer-Churchills have hung around royalty like flies around poo poo for centuries now.
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Nov 28, 2016 08:20
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swamp waste posted:Letters are cool I have seen 17th century documents in German where “und“ (=and) still is written as “vnndt“. It's somewhat rare by that time, though
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Nov 28, 2016 08:42
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learnincurve posted:You want a strange fish? (not actually a fish but a mollusc) I present the Cuttlefish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish Cuttlefish Bone also has a history of being used as a mold for casting jewelery and other small items.  
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Nov 28, 2016 10:52
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Nobile post could start some poo poo. Norway was so pissed after Amundsen's disappearance that Nobile was not allowed to touch Norwegian soil after his rescue. Also, his men probably ate Finn Malmgren. I like to think of myself as a man without too much prejudice, but I would definitely think twice about risking my life with Italians around.
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Nov 28, 2016 13:05
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Thomas Paine, writer of Common Sense and The Rights of Man, the man who basically brought the idea of American independence into the national discourse, died a complete national pariah after he wrote a particularly nasty letter to George Washington after he was imprisoned during the course of the French Revolution (he basically moved to France after living in England because apparently one revolution was just not enough for him). His funeral was attended by 6 people, and eventually his grave was robbed by an Englishman who wanted to bury him in England just to be a dick. That particular Englishman never got around to it, and consequently Paine's bones are now totally lost to history.
A Festivus Miracle has a new favorite as of 14:53 on Nov 28, 2016 |
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Nov 28, 2016 14:51
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Yvonmukluk posted:Also, Churchill's writings (books, articles, etc.) are credited Winston S. Churchill, since there was an American novelist who was also called Winston Churchill, and so Winston Spencer Churchill used his middle initial to differentiate himself. He was also the first recorded user of the phrase OMG, apparently. Tho that did come from QI, so...
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Nov 28, 2016 14:56
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Not only did he move to France, he also worked closely with Napoleon before his coronation, and wrote for him a series of treatises on how to best prosecute an offensive campaign against England, including an invasion.Samovar posted:He was also the first recorded user of the phrase OMG, apparently. Tho that did come from QI, so... I believe it was Jacky Fisher writing to Churchill during the WWI.
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Nov 28, 2016 14:57
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 2nd Lieutenant Winston Churchill of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1895. Churchill would have been 20 or 21 at the time.
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Nov 28, 2016 15:57
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Free Market Mambo posted:
Titina is a brave little girl and I won't hear anything bad about her  Free Market Mambo posted:Norway was so pissed after Amundsen's disappearance that Nobile was not allowed to touch Norwegian soil after his rescue. Conquered two poles but never could find the pole stuck up his rear end     Hey Roald, try petting a dog for a change
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Nov 28, 2016 16:14
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I never meant to besmirch Titina. All is forgiven. Amundsen was just choosy about his dogs, he liked them medium to well done.
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Nov 28, 2016 16:47
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System Metternich posted:
And already he had mastered the art of looking like a douchebag. The Sausages posted:Cuttlefish Bone also has a history of being used as a mold for casting jewelery and other small items. I have actually done this.
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Nov 28, 2016 17:14
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System Metternich posted:
He was captured in South Africa by some Irish soldiers who were fighting alongside the Boers, but managed to escape because they all got drunk at a Christmas party. Saved by a reliable stereotype.
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Nov 28, 2016 17:49
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China had paper money centuries before anybody else. Of course, subsequent dynasties spectacularly mismanaged paper money until it became almost worthless. Eventually, the government was forced to switch back to valuable metals, in particular silver. Where did they source this silver from? Japan had some silver, but it's meager output was not enough to feed the huge Chinese economy (largest in the world at that time). Thankfully, a new source became available - the Americas. Roughly a 1/3rd of all silver mined in the America from 1500-1800 ended up in China. Despite receiving a 1/3rd of a literal mountain of silver, China demand for silver was still too great (mostly because the government began requiring people to pay their taxes in silver). European traders switched from paying for goods in silver, to paying for goods in opium.
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Nov 28, 2016 20:15
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I'm not sure that was the reason for the British on that one. Something really worth downloading from iTunes is Victoria wood's nice cup of tea, which was a two part documentary. Victoria Wood, who is another victim of 2016, was like a female version of Steven Fry. gently caress this year.
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Nov 28, 2016 20:27
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Khazar-khum posted:Let's step away from the table for a moment, shall we? This is almost certainly not true. The first recorded use of the phrase doesn't appear until over a hundred years after the Elizabethan period and was used then to refer to the office that sold box seats. Dictionaries and sites focused on lexicography mostly stick with the 18th century 'box seat' origin and it also fails the "the more clever a word origin is, the more likely it is to be wrong" test.
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Nov 28, 2016 20:32
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In 1846, the Donner Party was able to get its wagon train 80 miles across the Great Salt Lake Desert in six days despite inhospitable weather and conditions which forced them to abandon many of their wagons and oxen. In 1986, a team of researchers attempted to make the same journey at the same time of year in 4x4s and had to give up.
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Nov 29, 2016 14:28
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Wheat Loaf posted:In 1846, the Donner Party was able to get its wagon train 80 miles across the Great Salt Lake Desert in six days despite inhospitable weather and conditions which forced them to abandon many of their wagons and oxen. The same Donner party that resorted to cannibalism? Talk about worst road trip ever. For those of you who didn't go into some of the more tragic history of the Oregon Trail: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party Suspect Bucket has a new favorite as of 18:31 on Nov 29, 2016 |
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Nov 29, 2016 18:29
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Suspect Bucket posted:The same Donner party that resorted to cannibalism? Talk about worst road trip ever. The very same. That's where we get the term "Donner kebab" from.  But seriously, though, you read about that stuff and how harrowing it was (e.g. the children of Jacob Donner surviving by consuming their father's organs after he died) but all the description of it, even contemporary writings by the survivors who made it out of the Sierra Nevada alive, doesn't really convey the misery they must have experienced on an especially visceral level. Maybe that's just the standards of the time - you kept a stiff upper lip in the mid-19th century and all that.
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Nov 29, 2016 20:15
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Wheat Loaf posted:The very same. That's where we get the term "Donner kebab" from. Yer shittin me. A döner is the vertical meat stack thing.
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Nov 29, 2016 21:13
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Suspect Bucket posted:Yer shittin me. A döner is the vertical meat stack thing. Haha, yeah, I'm only messing.
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Nov 29, 2016 21:16
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Suspect Bucket posted:Yer shittin me. A döner is the vertical meat stack thing. Much like a human leg.
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Nov 29, 2016 22:18
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Keseberg, a recent German immigrant and the last member of the Donner Party to found, was probably the most hosed up member of the crew. He definitely murdered at least two people out of hunger, and when the last rescue party showed up to take the remaining survivors away, he then ate Tamsen Donner, who had stayed behind to look after her dying husband. When a group of people went up into the pass to basically take anything of value they could find amongst the wreckage of the Donner party, they found Keseberg in a cabin surrounded by half-eaten corpses. They were going to lynch him on the spot (which really would've been a kindness to him considering the rest of his life), but decided against it. He was a social pariah for the rest of his life. At least the rest of the Donner party members could claim that they only ate people out of desperation, but Keseberg probably ended up nomming down on his fellow man at least partly because he wanted to.
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Nov 30, 2016 04:33
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Wheat Loaf posted:Maybe that's just the standards of the time - you kept a stiff upper lip in the mid-19th century and all that. During John Brown's failed raid on Harper's Ferry, he and his followers, which included some of his sons, got holed up in the local fire house for several hours overnight. One of them, his son Owen, began to wail and cry piteously from having been shot in the gut. Afrer growing tired of this, John Brown admonished his son to "die like a man." So, yeah. Also Robert E. Lee led the military detachment that stormed said fire house and only failed to kill John Brown with his sword during said storming because he grabbed his ceremonial sword by accident which is fortunate because it allowed John Wilkes Booth to witness Brown's hanging. AvesPKS has a new favorite as of 05:21 on Nov 30, 2016 |
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Nov 30, 2016 05:19
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During the American Civil War, France got cute and tried to install a European monarch as Emporer of Mexico. It wasn't France in a hostile takeover though, a large portion of the Mexican citizens WANTED an Emporer. I would like to add that I could be over simplifying it, I just learned about it today and was hoping that if I'm wrong or completely off base someone would correct me.
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Nov 30, 2016 05:51
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:During the American Civil War, France got cute and tried to install a European monarch as Emporer of Mexico. It wasn't France in a hostile takeover though, a large portion of the Mexican citizens WANTED an Emporer. My favourite part of this story is that when he was captured by the republicans, one of his supporters came up with a plan for escape and had got as far as bribing the guards to Maximilian's cell. Maximilian refused because the plan involved shaving his beard. Also the citizens who wanted an emperor were the nobility and wealthy citizens who hated Juarez's liberal reforms. Maximilian ended up pissing them off by genuinely caring about the poor and continuing the program of liberal reforms. He was one of history's more interesting characters. GEORGE W BUSHI has a new favorite as of 06:08 on Nov 30, 2016 |
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Nov 30, 2016 06:06
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Baron Corbyn posted:Maximilian refused because the plan involved shaving his beard. He’d look better without it, to be honest. 
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Nov 30, 2016 06:10
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:During the American Civil War, France got cute and tried to install a European monarch as Emporer of Mexico. It wasn't France in a hostile takeover though, a large portion of the Mexican citizens WANTED an Emporer. Baron Corbyn posted:My favourite part of this story is that when he was captured by the republicans, one of his supporters came up with a plan for escape and had got as far as bribing the guards to Maximilian's cell. Maximilian refused because the plan involved shaving his beard. The Mexican emperor, who refused a blindfold, handed over a gold coin – a Maximilian d’or – to each member of the firing squad, and told them, “Muchachos, aim well, and aim right here,” indicating his heart. His final words were recorded as: quote:“Mexicans! persons of my rank and origin are destined by God either to be benefactors of the people or martyrs. Called by a great part of you, I came for the good of the country. Ambition did not bring me here: I came with the best of intentions and sincerest wishes for the future of my adopted country and for that of my soldiers, whom I thank before my death for the sacrifices which they have made for me. Mexicans! may my blood be the last which shall be spilled for the welfare of the country ; and if it should be necessary that its sons should still shed theirs, may it flow for its good, never by treason. Long live Independence; long live Mexico!”
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Nov 30, 2016 07:42
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System Metternich posted:I have seen 17th century documents in German where “und“ (=and) still is written as “vnndt“. It's somewhat rare by that time, though That seems more like handwritten Fraktur and local spelling idiopathies. Do you have any examples and where were they from? German got standardized as a language super late.
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Nov 30, 2016 08:09
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System Metternich posted:
There's a hilarious public domain book called Real Soldiers of Fortune that everyone here should probably read. Partially because it does a wonderful job of whitewashing and lionizing some truly awful people (like William Walker for instance) but also because it contains a short bio of Churchill from around the era this picture was taken that basically describes him as the guy all young boys should look up to and goes on to talk about how we can expect some great things from him.
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Nov 30, 2016 10:37
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I have a bit of a fascination with Adrian Carton de Wiart, because he comes off like Lance-Corporal Jones from Dad's Army if he was real and had been a lieutenant-general.
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Nov 30, 2016 10:48
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Shbobdb posted:That seems more like handwritten Fraktur and local spelling idiopathies. Do you have any examples and where were they from? German got standardized as a language super late. At least a lot of Danish writers still used -ffu- for the v-sound until sometime into the 1700s. For example Loffuen = "the law" (now spelled loven), Kiøbenhaffuen = Copenhagen (now spelled København).
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Nov 30, 2016 12:04
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How did we get Copenhagen from that? How does havn turn into hagen?
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Nov 30, 2016 23:11
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:The Mexican emperor, who refused a blindfold, handed over a gold coin – a Maximilian d’or – to each member of the firing squad, and told them, “Muchachos, aim well, and aim right here,” indicating his heart. His final words were recorded as: Jesus, how does someone manage to still be a decent sort when everyone around them is a bastard.
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Nov 30, 2016 23:13
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steinrokkan posted:That's a question nobody who hasn't experienced actual starvation can answer honestly. But I think I would be as appalled by the idea of eating my own dog as I would be by eating a human corpse. Not really a fun fact, but I do have some historical anecdotes on what desperations people resort to during actual starvation. It gets a little grim so I'll spoiler it and focus chiefly on a brief, informal summary of events. As far as the backstory for this anecdote goes the city of Sancerre was a huguenot stronghold during the French wars of religion, protected by walls, a citadel and ~300 professional fighters, ~300 trainees, ~150 pressed guardsmen and a smattering of others during the events**. The city had also taken in a large number of huguenot refugees who were escaping massacres occurring elsewhere in the country. Mosieur de Fontaines began a siege on Sancerre with about ~7,000 that was to last from around 1572 to 1573. There were cannons too but they proved ineffective, as were a number of direct assaults - this one came down ultimately came down to waiting and negotiation. Food supplies were sparse to begin with, the city conducted a number of sorties to forage the surrounding countryside - eventually these expeditions halted in the face of growing opposition. As regular food supplies exhausted and hunger escalated, taboos relaxed. Working animals like donkeys, mules and later horses were slaughtered. Following their consumption and exhaustion, was the eating of dogs and cats, then vermin like rats, moles, snails and slugs. Details were left behind about how these animals were eaten: rats , for example, were cooked and consumed whole (appropriate for children) while horses had to be delivered to butchers to ration out exactly. Finished products made from animal matter like leather, hides, drumskins, etc were eaten next once the unconventional meats ran out. They were grilled like tripe with a bit of fat on top for texture. 'Less' savory animal products like parchment paper were also consumed, whether it was from a book, a letter or a deed. Tallow candles were edible as were products made from animal hooves and horns. At some point even these items were exhausted and people ate bizarre things like weeds, powdered slate, straw and human excrement. Water flavored with herbs was about the heartiest meal you could obtain at this point. Some individuals were now openly wondering to clergy if it was a grave sin to consume the flesh of the dead. At around this time an instance of a man cooking his daughter in a stew came up That siege ended at around this point so further descent did not occur, but in other places like Augsberg during the 30 years war early modern taboos were further relaxed in the face of starvation. During its '34-35 siege its population fell from about ~45,000 to 15,000 when a defeated swede army fled there after its rout at Nordlingen and made a stand using the city's defenses. Corpses were, at one point, frequently buried with missing parts (breasts and buttocks typically) with cannibalism becoming a bit of an open secret. A clergyman wrote of this candid depravity, saying something to the extent of 'the bodies of those still alive had become graves to their cursed spirits.' In short, I think things can get a lot spookier than eating a dog. **The smattering of others included a significant number of women who bore halberds, pikes and even just long rods to help repel assaults. I like that detail because it reminds me that so little of actual warfighting (depending on the period) consisted of the traditional set piece battle that you can easily neglect the contributions of the non-professionals to a war's final outcome. Pyrrhus of Epirus, the guy who gave his name to the idea of a pyrrhic victory, died during a siege/assault when an old lady managed to crown him with a stone tile pried from a rooftop. hard counter has a new favorite as of 02:19 on Dec 1, 2016 |
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Dec 1, 2016 01:20
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