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Cumslut1895 posted:Plus he also did all that ethnic cleansing. Yeah, you should see how dirty they were before the showers.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:44
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Grand Prize Winner posted:I thought the entire thing was completely apocryphal. Even losing 150 men to blue on blue crime speaks to remarkable incompetence. It reminds me of the Terry Pratchett book Thud, where the dwarfs and trolls managed to accidentally ambush each other in the fog.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:48
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I think this is neat! Seawater is the secret to long-lasting Roman concrete. Well, not sea water. It's a little more complicated than that. http://www.nature.com/news/seawater-is-the-secret-to-long-lasting-roman-concrete-1.22231 quote:Ancient Romans built concrete sea walls that have withstood pounding ocean waves for more than 2,000 years. Now, an international team has discovered a clue to the concrete’s longevity: a rare mineral forms during chemical reactions between the concrete and seawater that strengthen the material.
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Jul 4, 2017 06:40
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Son of Thunderbeast posted:
This is some next-level autoerotic asphyxiation
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Jul 4, 2017 07:29
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Auto-erotic immolation
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Jul 4, 2017 07:54
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Son of Thunderbeast posted:
Gaius Goonius 
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Jul 4, 2017 09:03
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Imagine that's how you're remembered by history. If only I could be so lucky. 
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Jul 4, 2017 10:41
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HIC SACER MASTVRBARI PRAETER IVPITER OMNE IGNOTVM
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Jul 4, 2017 14:26
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Grand Prize Winner posted:I thought the entire thing was completely apocryphal. Even losing 150 men to blue on blue crime speaks to remarkable incompetence. Speaking of remarkable incompetence and friendly-fire, what about the Dogger Bank incident ? Basically during the Russo-Japanese War the Russian Baltic Fleet steams from Saint Petersburg to east Asia via the Cape of Good Hope to reinforce (or more accurately, replace) the destroyed Pacific Fleet. In the North Sea, amidst rumours of a lurking fleet of Japanese torpedo boats, the Russians open fire on a fleet of British steam trawlers in night and fog. One trawler is sunk and six are damaged, killing three fishermen. The Russian fleet then turned on itself, with two cruisers stationed outside the main fleet as escorts being mistaken for incoming Japanese warships and attacked successively by a line of seven of the 11 battleships in the fleet. However, thankful for small mercies, the Russian gunnery is so poor that only two crewmen on one of the cruisers were killed. One battleship fired an estimated 500 shells over 20 minutes without once hitting anything. In the grips of something approaching mass hysteria several Russian ships reported that they had been hit by torpedos and one reported that it had been boarded by a party of Japanese marines. It caused a major diplomatic spat with the UK, and British cruisers were despatched to shadow the Baltic Fleet out of the Bay of Biscay. The situation was defused by Russia paying compensation to the fishermen involved and agreeing to an international tribunal. The Baltic Fleet put into Vigo in Spain to discharge the more incompetent officers and then had to wait in Tangiers to meet up with its victualling ship, which had got seperated during the Dogger Bank Incident and, on rejoining the fleet, proudly reported having engaged three Japanese warships and had fired over 300 shells. The actual targets proved to be a Swedish merchant ship, a German trawler and a French cargo schooner.
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Jul 4, 2017 15:03
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It's worth pointing out that Britain and Japan were allies at the time of this incident, and Britain's shipbuilding industry was the leading source of warships for minor navies (including Japan), so the idea of a sneak attack by Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea isn't quite as psychotic as it sounds.
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Jul 4, 2017 15:48
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:It's worth pointing out that Britain and Japan were allies at the time of this incident, and Britain's shipbuilding industry was the leading source of warships for minor navies (including Japan), so the idea of a sneak attack by Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea isn't quite as psychotic as it sounds. This is a good point - in fact the Russian Baltic Fleet (soon to become the Second Pacific Squadron) also had a good number of ships built in British yards - a lot of the ships at Tsushima had come down the same slipways at Armstrong-Whitworth. It's also worth saying that the Russians weren't so much jumpy at Japanese battleships in the North Sea but torpedo boats and submarines, which were feared by everyone connected with lumbering pre-dreadnought battleships as a tiny boat, little more than a steam yacht (or a trawler, say...) moving at 25+ knots could sink a first-class battleship with a single hit and most guns big enough to disable a torpedo boat in the time between sighting it and it firing (especially at night) were too cumbersome and slow to train to stand a chance of hitting one. And a submarine was even more fearsome and more deadly. The fleet was under specific orders to look our for torpedo boats and "no vessel of any sort must be allowed to get in among the fleet". So you can easily see why the Russians, in the dark and in fog, poorly trained and badly prepared, with the other half of their navy at the bottom of Port Arthur courtesy of a surprise attack by the IJN, were nervous and prone to opening fire on a fleet of small steamers that began flashing signals.
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Jul 4, 2017 16:12
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Eh, around the same time the Dogger Bank incident happened, the American navy was in the habit of firing at rocks because they could be sneaky torpedo boats. The introduction of modern torpedos made everybody totally paranoid.
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Jul 4, 2017 16:21
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e:NM
Alhazred has a new favorite as of 16:52 on Jul 4, 2017 |
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Jul 4, 2017 16:47
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value-brand cereal posted:I think this is neat! Seawater is the secret to long-lasting Roman concrete. Well, not sea water. It's a little more complicated than that. Why is Pliny the Elder, one of the most full of poo poo historians ever, being used as a source about anything scientific
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Jul 4, 2017 17:56
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Pretty sure the roman volcanic ash concrete thingamajig has been mentioned in this very thread a couple hundred pages ago
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Jul 4, 2017 18:03
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Powaqoatse posted:Pretty sure the roman volcanic ash concrete thingamajig has been mentioned in this very thread a couple hundred pages ago Is this a bad time to bring up Wojtek?
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Jul 4, 2017 18:12
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Alhazred posted:Is this a bad time to bring up Wojtek? pls dont!!!! anything ww2-related will bring out the creepy grognards
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Jul 4, 2017 18:34
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Aesop Poprock posted:Why is Pliny the Elder, one of the most full of poo poo historians ever, being used as a source about anything scientific Because those walls are still standing  the secret is that they developed some rare aluminium crystal complex
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Jul 4, 2017 21:42
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Powaqoatse posted:pls dont!!!! anything ww2-related will bring out the creepy grognards
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Jul 5, 2017 01:37
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tank destroyers are both cool and good
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Jul 5, 2017 02:03
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But how do you feel about neglected dogs?
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Jul 5, 2017 02:07
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Dogs of war are goode dogges and tank destroyers are cool and good  
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Jul 5, 2017 10:08
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I went to look up the French president who died while getting blown by his mistress and found his Wikipedia page (shorter than expected, considering that I imagine the President of France would have been quite important in world politics in the 1890s, but there's probably not the sources in English): Félix Faure. It included this amusing factoid: quote:In 1898 (and for the first few years of the following century) the French automobile industry was the largest in the world. President Faure was not impressed. Invited to address industry leaders at what, in restrospect, is recorded as the first Paris Motor Show, Faure told his audience, "Your cars are very ugly and they smell very bad"
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Jul 5, 2017 12:34
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Wheat Loaf posted:I went to look up the French president who died while getting blown by his mistress and found his Wikipedia page (shorter than expected, considering that I imagine the President of France would have been quite important in world politics in the 1890s, but there's probably not the sources in English): Félix Faure. That's pretty godamn french
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Jul 5, 2017 20:32
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In the '60s and '70s, Southern Pacific railroad built an extensive network of microwave transmitters (and later, fiber-optic lines)along their right-of-ways (rights-of-way? Alongside the tracks.) for internal communications between offices/yards/stations. In 1972, Southern Pacific Communications Co.started leasing some of their excess bandwidth as private lines to other businesses (Ma Bell's monopoly preventing them from offering services to the public). In 1978, AT&T got broken up, so SPC Co. was able to start selling long-distance phone service to the public. But they needed a snazzier name, and holding after a contest for ideas, changed the name of the company to Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications. They're still around. 
Chillbro Baggins has a new favorite as of 03:05 on Jul 11, 2017 |
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Jul 11, 2017 03:02
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Today I learned that when you see a coat of arms with a heraldic animal unusually wearing a helmet or something similar it means that the bearer of that coat of arms hosed up sometime during the past and received that “covering“ or “cloaking“ (German Verkappung) as punishment. Prenzlau received the covering by its lord, the prince-elector of Brandenburg, after opening its gates to Pomeranian troops in 1425.  Ústí nad Labem/Aussig got its punishment for letting Hussites live in the city.
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Jul 11, 2017 17:56
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System Metternich posted:Today I learned that when you see a coat of arms with a heraldic animal unusually wearing a helmet or something similar it means that the bearer of that coat of arms hosed up sometime during the past and received that “covering“ or “cloaking“ (German Verkappung) as punishment. I thought different colors and styles of helmets regardless of where they're placed just denoted rank or social position? Like an opened helmet would mean elite royalty and closed were lower royalty or something like that
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Jul 11, 2017 19:01
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During the English civil war, King Charles II found refuge in Bruges, Belgium. When he was back on the throne in 1666, he expressed his gratitude by giving Bruges a special privilege.  In case your ancient Dutch isn't very good, it says that the people of Bruges are allowed to freely catch fish in English waters with 50 ships, and that this privilege is valid perpetually. This document surfaced in a Belgian archive back in 1963, and shortly after, a Bruges guy called Victor De Paepe took his fishing ship, "Charles the Second", near the English coast and caught 22 kg of fish before being caught by the Royal Navy. He had informed British authorities ahead of time that he would do this to test the legality of the document, so the British authorities allowed him to wait for the verdict on a £10 bail. The Belgian government in Brussels had feared the British would just laugh at him, or that he would cause a diplomatic incident. Quite the opposite happened, the Brits took the fact that De Paepe honored this ancient document very seriously. However, several British judges refrained from deciding this case, saying only the House of Lords could decide. Bringing the case before the House of Lords would cost a lot of money, so De Paepe decided to drop it. However, as it turns out, several British lawyers of high standing believed the document WOULD still be valid, and had advised the House of Lords to prevent the case from getting to them, because they would probably have to conclude that the Bruges privilege was still valid. Recently, with the brexit looming, the British government told the EU that they will start blocking all EU fishing ships from getting near Britain (currently, it seems to be treated as shared EU waters), which would be quite a problem for many fisheries in Belgium and the Netherlands, because they get the majority of their fish from there. A Flemish minister recently said in a tv show, that while this document in itself won't solve the problem, it wiill be a nice historical fun fact to bring onto the negotiation table when they start talking about a new fishing deal with Britain. Carbon dioxide has a new favorite as of 06:44 on Jul 12, 2017 |
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Jul 12, 2017 06:41
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System Metternich posted:Today I learned that when you see a coat of arms with a heraldic animal unusually wearing a helmet or something similar it means that the bearer of that coat of arms hosed up sometime during the past and received that “covering“ or “cloaking“ (German Verkappung) as punishment. I had a very good post planned about the abatement of heraldry. It seems that your tincture could be tainted by a red spot (for adultery) or your chevron could be broken (for cowardice), and in extremis the whole coat of arms could be inverted for high treason, but the whole matter seems to be fictitious. Ah well. And even if it were true and your coat of arms were tainted to show your sin, you could always choose not to display your heraldry or to give yourself a new personal coat of arms.
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Jul 12, 2017 06:55
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Carbon dioxide posted:During the English civil war, King Charles II found refuge in Bruges, Belgium. I'd think that if the house that issued that proclamation fell, then the new lineage wouldn't have to honor it. Or is that not how king stuff works?
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Jul 12, 2017 08:08
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Solice Kirsk posted:I'd think that if the house that issued that proclamation fell, then the new lineage wouldn't have to honor it. Or is that not how king stuff works? Successor states usually carry over their previous privileges and responsibilities. Russia eventually paid off a lot (or all?) of its Soviet era debts. Unless they've specifically proclaimed to break it, it should be in force. I highly doubt they'd do anything else than tell Bruges to get hosed and announce they're breaking the agreement, though. It's not like there'd be any consequences.
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Jul 12, 2017 08:59
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Solice Kirsk posted:I'd think that if the house that issued that proclamation fell, then the new lineage wouldn't have to honor it. Or is that not how king stuff works? The individuals don't rule, the Crown does.
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Jul 12, 2017 09:49
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And at this point, I don't think we'll run out of Windsors.
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Jul 12, 2017 12:06
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I was thinking recently that Prince Charles is what I imagine George Bush will look like as he ages, then I realised Prince Charles is actually a year younger than George Bush. Bill Clinton, George Bush and Donald Trump are all the same age, which is bemusing given they've each been president in a different decade.
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Jul 12, 2017 12:35
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Tasteful Dickpic posted:And at this point, I don't think we'll run out of Windsors. Yeah I was thinking about this earlier today. At this point, there's only three realistic ways that the monarchy would come to an end. In order of most to least likely: 1) A government is elected with an explicit manifesto commitment to declare a republic. 2) The reigning monarch forces a constitutional crisis (e.g. by not giving Royal Assent to a bill against the wishes of the government). 3) A disaster kills off enough of the likely successors that the line of succession becomes absurd, or diplomatically untenable, and the government of the day plumps for republicanism instead. None of them, of course, are things which are probable in the current climate. It's an interesting constitutional question because the heart of how the UK government operates is the premise that everyone is actually doing things on the nod from the Crown - no Crown, no government. In the real world this would all get worked around of course, but
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Jul 12, 2017 13:43
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Carbon dioxide posted:During the English civil war, King Charles II found refuge in Bruges, Belgium. lmao
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Jul 12, 2017 15:03
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Osama Dozen-Dongs posted:Successor states usually carry over their previous privileges and responsibilities. Russia eventually paid off a lot (or all?) of its Soviet era debts. Unless they've specifically proclaimed to break it, it should be in force. I highly doubt they'd do anything else than tell Bruges to get hosed and announce they're breaking the agreement, though. It's not like there'd be any consequences. Yeah, Russia explicitly took on all Soviet debts, freeing all other former Soviet republics from them.
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Jul 12, 2017 15:21
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Corrode posted:Yeah I was thinking about this earlier today. At this point, there's only three realistic ways that the monarchy would come to an end. In order of most to least likely: This is known as a King Ralph Level Event.
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Jul 12, 2017 16:27
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Corrode posted:(e.g. by not giving Royal Assent to a bill against the wishes of the government). This happened in Belgium in 1990, king refused to sign an abortion law. The government then issued a declaration saying the king was unfit for duty and in that case, the constitution says a specific group of politicians can take his place in official matters. The law was signed the next day by the replacements, and the day after that, the government declared that the king was miraculously feeling completely well again.
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Jul 12, 2017 18:01
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Carbon dioxide posted:This happened in Belgium in 1990, king refused to sign an abortion law. The government then issued a declaration saying the king was unfit for duty and in that case, the constitution says a specific group of politicians can take his place in official matters. The law was signed the next day by the replacements, and the day after that, the government declared that the king was miraculously feeling completely well again. Well, the king, being Catholic, could not sign it and still be right with the JP2 crew. But this was a way he could still get the law passed and still be considered a good Catholic.
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Jul 12, 2017 19:14
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