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Spaced God posted:(Conrad, Gordon, and Bean in the capsule) I'm always amused that there was an astronaut named Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean Goes to the Moon.
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Dec 12, 2016 13:11
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Two different countries claims to be the final resting place of Christopher Colombus. When he died in 1506 he was buried in Valladolid, Spain. Then in 1542 his remains was moved to the Dominican Republic. In 1795 he was dug up and moved to Cuba. When Cuba became independent in 1898 the remains were moved back to Spain. But in an unexpected twist a lead box with bone fragments and an inscription that read "Don Christopher Columbus" was found in Santo Domingo in 1877 which lead the Dominican Republic to claim that the wrong bones had been sent to Cuba. DNA testing has shown that the remains buried in Spain is most likely Colombus', but that hasn't stopped the Dominican Republican's from their claims. They do however refuse to exhume the remains.
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Dec 12, 2016 19:33
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Ethiopia claims to have the ark of the covenant but won't let anyone see it. Presumably they also have an uncle who works at Nintendo and a girlfriend who goes to another school.
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Dec 12, 2016 20:10
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Sweevo posted:Ethiopia claims to have the ark of the covenant but won't let anyone see it. Well yeah, do you want their faces to melt off?
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Dec 12, 2016 21:37
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Moon Towers Alien structures? Optical illusions? Mass hysteria? Nope. Moon Towers were enormous electric lighting rigs set in cities in the late 19th C. Armed with arc lights, standing over 100 ft tall, they could illuminate many blocks at once. Detroit had a large set which was eventually sold to Austin, Texas, where they still operate, the only ones left in the world. http://austinot.com/austin-moon-towers Any Austin goons want to comment?
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Dec 13, 2016 00:20
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Samuel Pepys' diary is one of the most significant records of 17th century life. Pepys was an upper middle-class gentleman who later in life served as an MP and rubbed shoulders with royalty. The diary he kept for ten years in his late 20s and early 30s gives us a great deal of insight into everyday life in the 1600s, and covers many important events - the restoration of the monarchy, the great plague, the great fire of London, and the time he bought porn:January 13, 1668 posted:....stopped at Martin's my bookseller [supposedly looking for a gift for his wife], where I saw the French book which I did think to have had for my wife to translate, called L'escholle des Filles, but when I came to look into it, it is the most bawdy, lewd book that ever I saw, rather worse than Puttana Errante [an Italian dirty book from 1650] - so that I was ashamed of reading in it. "Filthy! Even filthier than this other filthy book I know about for... reasons". He was ashamed at having seen such a book, but not so ashamed that he didn't return three weeks later and buy it. February 8, 1668 posted:...to my bookseller's, and there stayed an hour and bought that idle, roguish book, L'escholle des Filles, which I have bought in plain binding (avoiding the buying of it better bound) because I resolve, as soon as I have read it, to burn it, that it may not stand in the list of my books, nor among them, to disgrace them if it should be found. February 9, 1668 posted:Up, and in my office all the morning, doing business and also reading a little of L'escholle des Filles, which is a mighty lewd book, but yet not amiss for a sober man once to read over to inform himself in the villainy of the world. Sure Sammy, you're only reading it for educational purposes, which is why that very same night you scurry up to the bedroom with it. (this bit is written in odd mock-Spanish/French that Pepys used as code/shorthand, but you can work out what he means:  )quote:...to my chamber, where I did read through L'escholle de Filles a lewd book, but what doth me no wrong to read for information sake but it did hazer my prick para stand all the while, and una vez to decharge; and after I had done, I burned it, that it might not be among my books to my shame; and so at night to supper and then to bed. Sweevo has a new favorite as of 00:48 on Jan 22, 2017 |
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Dec 13, 2016 01:53
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Catherine the Great was brought up earlier, as well as the rumors of how she died. The rumor (probably started after she passed on) was that she died due to being seriously injured while loving a horse. This was nonsense; she died old of an old person problem. At the age of 67 she had a stroke on the toilet and died of it the next day. All told that's a bog standard way to go. Now, why would somebody start such a rumor? Well, there were...a lot of reasons. First off notice that her name was "Catherine." As in, a woman's name. She was a she. This was a time when female rulers were still A Very Bad Thing. Being a king or an emperor was considered men's work for manly men. You had to be a tough, manly bastard to rule properly. Catherine, for her part, was actually a pretty good ruler and ushered in and ruled over a golden age for Russia. It went from being "that country over in that cold place that people mostly ignore" to an actual important, major power in European politics. She also embraced the Enlightenment Era whole hog and was a real advocate of thrusting Russia into the future. She even did things like start schools for noble girls (who weren't always all that well educated) and loving the gently caress out of art. The Hermitage Museum started with Catherine's personal art collection and has since spread through the entirety of what was the Winter Palace at the time. It was started in the 1760's and you can go visit it in St. Petersburg if you're feeling ambitious. Now, as for the other reasons she was unmarried through pretty much her entire reign. She got her start by staging what was basically a coup against her husband. Kind of a dick move all around but at least she didn't just outright murder him. That didn't stop somebody else from assassinating him shortly there after. She probably didn't have a hand in that in the "we never found any evidence" sense. She never remarried. Now, this is...kind of a big deal. See, heirs had to be legitimate. As in, the actual offspring of a married couple of rulers. Her only "legitimate" son became Paul I but it's been hinted (even by she herself) that he wasn't even Peter III's actual son. She may have had a lover at the time who may have been the actual father. Which kind of leads to the second half of why that rumor started. See, Catherine was an unashamed horn dog. She hosed everybody that struck her fancy. As an unmarried, very rich woman who ran, you know, a freaking big nation she could have any dude she wanted. Here's another side of it; she was extremely generous to her lovers. Any dude that struck her fancy was guaranteed an elevation in status. New nobility was created in the wake of her humping. This was especially true Now, this was also, at the time, a Very Bad Thing. Only men were to have lovers and it was to be kept on the down low. A kept woman understood that she was probably unmarriagable and would probably end up having illegitimate children that would be born into a low station no matter how far up she was. Royal women were also expected to get married, not sleep around, and produce legitimate heirs that were, you know, of the proper high station. Catherine gave no shits; if she saw a serf she thought was hot it was hump o'clock and she didn't give a drat what anybody had to say about it. Now notice that she died of old rather than of violence. Her husband and her son both got assassinated; the latter because he was kind of a lovely ruler. Catherine herself even favored her grandson, who would later ascend to the throne anyway, as Paul I was kind of a shitter and she knew it. She intended on announcing Alexander I as her immediate successor to the throne but died before she could make the announcement. Then a coup murdered Paul I which put Alexander I on the throne. For his part he wanted nothing to do with the killing and felt very, very guilty about the way he became Emperor. Things were pretty good in Russia during Catherine's reign for pretty much everybody; even serfs saw better legal status than they had before. When your ruler is competent you just kind of go with the flow, get what I'm saying?
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Dec 13, 2016 03:01
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Sweevo posted:Sure Sammy, you're only reading it for educational purposes, which is why that very same night you scurry up to the bedroom with it. (this bit is written in odd mock-Spanish/French that Pepys used as code/shorthand, but you can work out what he means: Haha cool. I like that even if you are somehow totally baffled by the pseudo spanish it still reads basically "adfjlasf my dicks hard kgfdkgs cumming"
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Dec 13, 2016 03:21
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swamp waste posted:Haha cool. I like that even if you are somehow totally baffled by the pseudo spanish it still reads basically "adfjlasf my dicks hard kgfdkgs cumming" Haha I thought this same thing. "hazer my prick" uh huh.
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Dec 13, 2016 03:28
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I love Samuel Pepys. There's something really endearing about reading a diary from 350 years ago and recognizing the same exact type of normie shithead you see in, like, Seinfeld and in British sitcoms -- he's such a loving nebbish e: he specifically reminds me of George or of Martin Freeman
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Dec 13, 2016 04:11
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InediblePenguin posted:I love Samuel Pepys. There's something really endearing about reading a diary from 350 years ago and recognizing the same exact type of normie shithead you see in, like, Seinfeld and in British sitcoms -- he's such a loving nebbish That's what makes ancient or historical journals, graffiti, and personal writings so great. They point out that society is not, in fact, in moral freefall. Humans have always been a bunch of smelly, hairy apes ruled primarily by our base urges. There's nothing wrong with it; that's just what we are.
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Dec 13, 2016 04:14
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ToxicSlurpee posted:That's what makes ancient or historical journals, graffiti, and personal writings so great. They point out that society is not, in fact, in moral freefall. Humans have always been a bunch of smelly, hairy apes ruled primarily by our base urges. There's nothing wrong with it; that's just what we are. But my tech bubble!
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Dec 13, 2016 04:26
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ToxicSlurpee posted:Catherine the Great was brought up earlier, as well as the rumors of how she died. The rumor (probably started after she passed on) was that she died due to being seriously injured while loving a horse. This was nonsense; she died old of an old person problem. At the age of 67 she had a stroke on the toilet and died of it the next day. All told that's a bog standard way to go. This is very well written. But we still have to make the cheap horse jokes, you understand.
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Dec 13, 2016 06:29
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There’s a Steam achievement in Civ V for playing as Catherine and researching Horseback Riding before any other civ. It is entitled “My Little Pony”.
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Dec 13, 2016 06:39
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Sweevo posted:Samuel Pepys' diary is one of the most significant records of 17th century life. Pepys was an upper middle-class gentleman who served as an MP and rubbed shoulders with royaly. The diary he kept for ten years gives us a great deal of insight into everyday life in the 1600s, and covers many important events - the restoration of the monarchy, the great plague, the great fire of London, and the time he bought porn: Fun fact, thanks to digitally cataloging old libraries you can read this obscene subversive text right here:  https://books.google.com/books?id=_9dNAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false The opening illustration is hilarious
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Dec 13, 2016 08:34
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Try https://www.pepysdiary.com instead for the full diary effect. There even is an app for that! :iamafag: e: there's tons of fascinating stuff in it besides him jerking off to a smutty book. Pepys was, uh, sexually pretty active to the point that many older editions of his diaries had to omit tons of stuff as to not hurt the sensibilities of the Victorian era. Sadly the version used by the website I linked is from 1893 due to copyright, and therefore doesn't have the raunchier passages. You still can totally see how ol' Sam was a huge horndog, though: the diary entry for “today“ on the website posted:I have forgot to set down a very remarkable passage that, Lewellen being gone, and I going into the office, and it begun to be dark, I found nobody there, my clerks being at the burial of a child of W. Griffin’s, and so I spent a little time till they came, walking in the garden, and in the mean time, while I was walking Mrs. Pen’spretty maid came by my side, and went into the office, but finding nobody there I went in to her, being glad of the occasion. She told me as she was going out again that there was nobody there, and that she came for a sheet of paper. So I told her I would supply her, and left her in the office and went into my office and opened my garden door, thinking to have got her in, and there to have caressed her, and seeming looking for paper, I told her this way was as near a way for her, but she told me she had left the door open and so did not come to me. So I carried her some paper and kissed her, leading her by the hand to the garden door and there let her go. But, Lord! to see how much I was put out of order by this surprisal, and how much I could have subjected my mind to have treated and been found with this wench, and how afterwards I was troubled to think what if she should tell this and whether I had spoke or done any thing that might be unfit for her to tell. But I think there was nothing more passed than just what I here write. System Metternich has a new favorite as of 08:55 on Dec 13, 2016 |
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Dec 13, 2016 08:43
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:Fun fact, thanks to digitally cataloging old libraries you can read this obscene subversive text right here: 17th & 18th c porn is glorious. There was an amazing amount published, which has raised the question of just how literate the general populace was. When you consider that anyone of the merchant classes would need to be able to read and write, along with reeves & clerics, and you see that the market was quite substantial.
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Dec 13, 2016 09:03
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ToxicSlurpee posted:At the age of 67 she had a stroke on the toilet and died of it the next day. All told that's a bog standard way to go. I'm not sure whether I hate this or love this. 
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Dec 13, 2016 11:23
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Khazar-khum posted:17th & 18th c porn is glorious. There was an amazing amount published, which has raised the question of just how literate the general populace was. When you consider that anyone of the merchant classes would need to be able to read and write, along with reeves & clerics, and you see that the market was quite substantial.
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Dec 13, 2016 12:04
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Khazar-khum posted:17th & 18th c porn is glorious. There was an amazing amount published, which has raised the question of just how literate the general populace was. When you consider that anyone of the merchant classes would need to be able to read and write, along with reeves & clerics, and you see that the market was quite substantial. "This Relation makes me mad for loving." I love that it has end-notes.
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Dec 13, 2016 12:09
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:Fun fact, thanks to digitally cataloging old libraries you can read this obscene subversive text right here: This isn't even porn exactly, it's more like an illustrated sex manual for young ladies. It also contains the amazing word "discunted". Definite pro click.
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Dec 13, 2016 13:24
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:WWI Fun: during the First World War, there's at least one documented case of a firefight between horse cavalry and a submarine. Apparently a British sub surfaced at the Dardanelles and exchanged small arms fire with an Ottoman cavalry unit. (Wiki) HMS Dreadnought, the OG modern battleship, is the only BB to get a verified kill of a submarine. Rammed a u-boat in 1915. The battleship has all the armour, thee submarine is a lil' tin can ... it's not going to go well for the boat.
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Dec 13, 2016 13:49
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Catherine's horndoggery was....a little more complicated than just "Goddamn that is a fine rear end serf". Catherine definitely had a series of lovers that she verily cannily choose for their abilites. She recognized talent where she saw it, and she knew how to secure loyalty, even if that required a lil bit of the  . However, the idea that was a total sexual maniac running around loving whoever she liked is not that well founded. During her lifetime, virtually everyone who put at a disadvantage by her was falling over themselves to call her a slut. Frederick the Great wrote to his brother talking about Catherine: "a woman is always a woman and, in feminine government, the oval office has more influence than a firm policy guided by straight reason." The death by horse donger story most definitely originates in France, where the French press, having honed their fangs on calling Marie Antionette an incestous whore, also had a sideshow of insulting Catherine the Great.
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Dec 13, 2016 14:02
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Platystemon posted:I don’t put a massive amount of weight on the distinction between “swore allegiance to the führer because he wanted to blow poo poo up” and “blew poo poo up because he swore allegiance to the führer”. Hey, it worked for the rocket guy. "Don't say that he's hypocritical, say rather that he's apolitical" &c.. Also p sure Rommel, Donitz, and von Braun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro got a bit of a pass at the tribunals (yes I know Rommel died before the war was over, but at least Hitler though he was conspiring against him, so less bad Nazi, and Donitz was named Hitler's successor and immediately surrendered. They could have been worse.) but if Wittman had lived to go to trial ... yeah, that rear end in a top hat probs would've been executed, or handed over to the Soviets. OTOH I once saw a documentary about the battle of the Atlantic and some old dude was talking about his dad the submarine skipper ... it was made in the '80s and Dad was in WWI, the guy talking was the u-boat captain who snuck into Scapa Flow and sunk a battleship (Gunter Prien). And then was a legit businessman postwar, just like whatshisface that commanded a Tiger during the war and ran the Tiger Pharmacy after. Lol Donitz was convicted but not sentenced for submarine-based war crimes because Nimitz admitted to doing the same thing in the Pacific. War is hell, and all. Chillbro Baggins has a new favorite as of 14:19 on Dec 13, 2016 |
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Dec 13, 2016 14:07
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Did Dönitz really need to stall? Ostensibly, the delay gave soldiers time to surrender to the Western Allies, but that’s a conveniently flattering excuse.
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Dec 13, 2016 14:18
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A White Guy posted:Catherine's horndoggery was....a little more complicated than just "Goddamn that is a fine rear end serf". Catherine definitely had a series of lovers that she verily cannily choose for their abilites. She recognized talent where she saw it, and she knew how to secure loyalty, even if that required a lil bit of the Sure, the French later had a president who died of a heart attack while he was banging his mistress and I'm pretty sure they built him a monument. 
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Dec 13, 2016 14:24
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Platystemon posted:Did Dönitz really need to stall? I didn't know Donitz did stall, but I guess he did? And yeah, one would hope he gave his sailors* the chance to surrender to the Americans rather than getting hosed six ways to Sunday by the USSR. *Edit: the German Navy never did like the govt, did they? But yeah you'd think Hitler would nominate somebody more insane than Admiral Donuts. 'Cause Dernitz was actually kinda rational and knew when to give up. Edit 2: I forget when the Brits almost lost and when Jerry mutinied. P sure the latter was at the end of the Great War and the former was at the beginning of 2? Chillbro Baggins has a new favorite as of 14:30 on Dec 13, 2016 |
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Dec 13, 2016 14:25
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Fun fact: Lord Lucan was offered the chance to screen-test for the role of James Bond in Dr No, but declined because he'd been previously unsuccessful when he'd auditioned for a lead role in an earlier movie.
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Dec 13, 2016 14:29
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Wheat Loaf posted:Fun fact: Lord Lucan was offered the chance to screen-test for the role of James Bond in Dr No, but declined because he'd been previously unsuccessful when he'd auditioned for a lead role in an earlier movie. As was Roger Moore, he was already contracted for The Saint TV show, so Connery was the first Bond, and Moore took the part later, after the TV show crapped out and he was old. Edit: How many Englishmen have played Bond? Just Daniel Craig and maybe Roger Moore? And everybody else was Scottish/Aussie/Welsh/Irish (the other Irish)/whatevs? Chillbro Baggins has a new favorite as of 14:37 on Dec 13, 2016 |
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Dec 13, 2016 14:32
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chitoryu12 posted:The basic issue with de-Nazification, as Cyrano described whenever he spoke about it, is that being a member of the Nazi party was a prerequisite to success in Germany during and before the war. The government intentionally arranged it so that it was very difficult to earn promotions, get particular jobs, etc. without being a registered member of the party. A ton of people who didn't really support the Nazis still ended up joining because it was expected of them and the pressure was squeezed in juuuust the right places. We know when we started setting off nukes (and future peeps will probably remember), so I think it might be possible for future historians to date poo poo with plutonium decay products rather than C14. Also C14 can be calibrated with trees. We can count the tree rings and measure the C14 in 'em. Chillbro Baggins has a new favorite as of 14:49 on Dec 13, 2016 |
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Dec 13, 2016 14:45
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Delivery McGee posted:Edit: How many Englishmen have played Bond? Just Daniel Craig and maybe Roger Moore? And everybody else was Scottish/Aussie/Welsh/Irish (the other Irish)/whatevs? Moore, Craig and David Niven. 
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Dec 13, 2016 14:57
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Delivery McGee posted:I didn't know Donitz did stall, but I guess he did? And yeah, one would hope he gave his sailors* the chance to surrender to the Americans rather than getting hosed six ways to Sunday by the USSR. Hitler did nominate someone more insane than Donitz. He split the title of Fuhrer back into President and Chancellor and made Goebbels the Chancellor. Goebbels just offed himself the next day leaving all the power in Donitz's hands and apparently this guy's.
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Dec 13, 2016 15:26
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Delivery McGee posted:I didn't know Donitz did stall, but I guess he did? And yeah, one would hope he gave his sailors* the chance to surrender to the Americans rather than getting hosed six ways to Sunday by the USSR. Dönitz wasn't Hitler's first choice. Göring was the designated successor in the early years of the war, but when he learned that Hitler was pinned down in the bunker, Göring pretty much decided it was time for him to take over as Führer the better to oversee surrender negotiations, and informed Hitler of this. Hitler obviously did not take this well, accused Göring of treason, stripped him of his rank, and rewrote his will to divide his powers between Dönitz and Goebbels on his death. In the event Goebbels killed himself the day after Hitler so it was left to Dönitz to carry on. As to why Dönitz, he was basically the most senior remaining military officer who hadn't disgraced himself in Hitler's eyes at that point: Keitel, the nominal commander of the armed forces, and Jodl, the chief of staff, were both yes-men who were with Hitler in the bunker and had not impressed him (they're among the guys Hitler is yelling at in the famous scene from Downfall); Göring, the commander of the Luftwaffe, was obviously out of the question; and Hitler himself was the commander of the army. So Dönitz was kind of the default choice.
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Dec 13, 2016 15:39
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I know von Braun wasn’t nearly important enough to be considered, but I kind of wish he had been so that he would be tainted and unsuitable to head the American space program.
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Dec 13, 2016 15:42
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Wheat Loaf posted:Moore, Craig and David Niven. Thank you. No one remembers the old Casino Royale.
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Dec 13, 2016 17:26
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skasion posted:Dönitz wasn't Hitler's first choice. Göring was the designated successor in the early years of the war, but when he learned that Hitler was pinned down in the bunker, Göring pretty much decided it was time for him to take over as Führer the better to oversee surrender negotiations, and informed Hitler of this. Hitler obviously did not take this well, accused Göring of treason, stripped him of his rank, and rewrote his will to divide his powers between Dönitz and Goebbels on his death. In the event Goebbels killed himself the day after Hitler so it was left to Dönitz to carry on. As to why Dönitz, he was basically the most senior remaining military officer who hadn't disgraced himself in Hitler's eyes at that point: Keitel, the nominal commander of the armed forces, and Jodl, the chief of staff, were both yes-men who were with Hitler in the bunker and had not impressed him (they're among the guys Hitler is yelling at in the famous scene from Downfall); Göring, the commander of the Luftwaffe, was obviously out of the question; and Hitler himself was the commander of the army. So Dönitz was kind of the default choice. Addendum: Himmler (who was Minister of the Interior and chief of the SS) also disqualified himself by trying to surrender.
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Dec 13, 2016 17:49
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Fun Fact about Göring: During WWI he was in charge of an unit called "The Flying Circus".
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Dec 13, 2016 18:08
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Alhazred posted:Fun Fact about Göring: During WWI he was in charge of an unit called "The Flying Circus". Herman Gerbils. That is all.
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Dec 13, 2016 18:13
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Khazar-khum posted:17th & 18th c porn is glorious. There was an amazing amount published, which has raised the question of just how literate the general populace was. When you consider that anyone of the merchant classes would need to be able to read and write, along with reeves & clerics, and you see that the market was quite substantial. It would vary considerably from one country to another, but I've seen literacy estimates of around 40-50% for England, staying pretty level between 1650-1800. Of course that depends on how you define literacy, and a lot of early thinking assumed you were literate as long as you knew how to sign your name. It was also common for people to be able to read but not write. Printing had been around for a couple of centuries at that point, and reading wasn't confined to the upper classes any more. Ordinary people could get posters and business leaflets printed somewhat cheaply, and printed newspapers were starting to appear. It would be pretty easy for the average person to pick up a little bit, even without any formal education, and families and employers often passed on the basics. Full books were still a little more expensive though, as while printing was cheap binding them was a skilled craft - perhaps why Pepys bought his saucy book in a cheaper plain binding (also perhaps so that he wouldn't be seen carrying it home, like hiding a dirty magazine in a paper bag). Sweevo has a new favorite as of 18:18 on Dec 13, 2016 |
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Dec 13, 2016 18:14
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bean_shadow posted:I'm always amused that there was an astronaut named Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean Goes to the Moon. I don't know if he's still doing it, but for a long time, Alan Bean painted moonscapes. In the paintings, he pressed in tiny fragments of keepsake patches from his EVA suit, patches stained with dust from the lunar surface. So he sells the paintings as including moon dust.
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Dec 13, 2016 18:38
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