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Smirr posted:"The Polynesians are generally Barbarous & Pagan" Seems to me to be quite obvious that the nationalities and genders are tied to the types of job historically on offer. Turkish immigrant labourers were mostly male, similar story with Italians (same as in Switzerland), both groups being brought over to do mostly manual labour. The US military has had a large presence in Germany, again mostly male. Female immigrant labourers were brought for service jobs, especially in nursing, where language skills would be required. This would obviously favour those from ex-Soviet states where German was a favoured second language and with a solid education system.
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Feb 8, 2013 00:23
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That map is really great.
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lonelywurm posted:I'm aware of that, though you forgot the bit where it purposefully relinquished self-government in 1934, reverting back to central rule from London - which it maintained until 1949 (when it became a province). That's why I don't see any alt-history justification for an independent Newfoundland. The image refers to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_Switzerland In fact Vorarlberg has already voted once to join Switzerland, and some of the Italian regions have strong separatist parties who seek the improved self-determination offered by joining the confederation. At one time even Milan was held by Swiss cantons. Political opposition stems from maintaining the status quo in terms of linguistic and religious affiliation (historically the swiss political landscape has been very stable), and the political backlash from neighboring countries. Two hundred years ago joining would have been very easy as shown by the addition of Jura (the area already in Switzerland) to Bern (which then gained independence in the 1970s). Alsatian is quite close to swiss german, as is swabian. Prior to the centralization of power and the cultural/linguistic assimilation, its conceivable that those regions could have joined Switzerland as equal members.
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Feb 20, 2013 22:04
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Farecoal posted:You're going to hate this:  Had to leech this since imgur etc don't support svg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4rket
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Feb 22, 2013 08:09
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PittTheElder posted:This indeed. At the end of the day, ethnicity is a pretty fluid concept (especially when skin color is largely removed from the equation), and given that these countries have really only existed for one or two generations, I think it's entirely plausible that people will start to define themselves by country rather than tribal ethnicity. Especially in places that can escape large scale civil violence, and establish good stable governments. Rwanda has taken a pretty strong stance with this. A lot of energy is being put into integration and reconciliation with people being rehabilitated into their former communities. Teenagers have camps where they learn to identify as Rwandans rather than by their ethnic groups. The government is authoritarian but that may be necessary to remove internal tensions and kick-start the economy, and its not going to be quick, a couple of generations might do it. Burundi has taken a slightly different path, time will tell how it pans out.
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Feb 26, 2013 22:09
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Mister Adequate posted:It also bears mentioning that prior to 1940 the French army was widely considered the finest in the world. When the Nazis smashed them it was a tremendous shock and it seemed to prove that the Wehrmacht were indeed capable of the impossible. This also fed into the ridiculous German expectation of being able to thrash the Soviets in a few weeks; whilst they had just conquered much of Europe and done in the French army in a few weeks, whilst the Red Army barely prevailed against the Finns of all people, and the Winter War seemed to justify the "Kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come down" angle. The soviet failures during the Winter War eventually saved them in WW2. When the assault into Finland didn't go as planned, Semyon Timoshenko took charge from Kliment Voroshilov (a politician). Timoshenko's success, alongside other factors, lead to the signing of the peace treaty. Political appointments in the soviet military decreased and many effects of the purges, often coordinated by Voroshilov, were reversed. And just in time, its hard to imagine what even half a year less of soviet military development would have resulted in.
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Mar 7, 2013 18:01
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Mister Adequate posted:Oh yeah, I didn't mean to suggest the Nazi view was an accurate one or that no developments took place after the Winter War that changed things, just that their notion of beating the titanic Soviet Union and the endless numbers of the Red Army wasn't completely insane out-of-nowhere fiction. I was just pointing out that the very differing lessons the soviets and the Germans took from the Winter War affected the outcome of WW2. The Germans did not consider that the soviet military would restructure after their failure. The German view of the soviet military was antiquated, and heavily influenced by Soviet-German military cooperation in the 20s and 30s. In a secret recording of the conversation between Hitler and Mannerheim, Hitler stated very clearly that the German military did not expect the soviets to have such well developed armored units. Whether this attitude actually prevailed in the German military structure or was just Hitler's normal ignorance is beyond what I know. Content!  The Fergana Valley is a fertile valley in an arid region with multiple countries bordering it. Increased exploitation of water supplies, several enclaves shown on the map, and disputes over rights to pastureland give rise to tensions in the region. 
Bensa fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Mar 7, 2013 |
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Mar 7, 2013 19:03
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Most of the Japanese army was intact at the time of the soviet invasion of Manchuria. The American military had mostly been fighting the Japanese navy, outside of some smaller campaigns in the Philippines etc. The fact is that in 11 days the soviets caused half of the losses the Japanese military sustained in the pacific theater. This is what really scared the Japanese leadership, because now it wasn't just the navy faction making GBS threads itself. Acid rain in Europe, mostly due to low grade polish coal that's making a comeback due to Germany's decision to shut down its nuclear reactors. Bensa fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Oct 28, 2013 |
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Oct 28, 2013 09:33
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twoday posted:It seems like these Ibadi guys really have this geography thing figured out. How is being the only state in the middle east where borders and religious demographics match working out for them? Mountains, like the Czechs.
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Nov 9, 2013 13:01
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Carbon dioxide posted:^^^^^ I forgot what that rule exactly was, but I think it had to do with magnetism. So, did you take the fact that the geographic North pole is at the magnetic South pole of the Earth in consideration? (That's why the North of any magnet is attracted by Earth's geographic North. It's magnetic South.)  The rule shows up in lots of physical concepts, including angular momentum and torque. North or south on the top make sense for globes as well, a east/west aligned globe would be somewhat more susceptible to uneven wearing.
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Jan 17, 2014 23:10
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Farecoal posted:You can also see here the broad gauge (on a mixed standard-broad track) used by the Great Western Railway in Britain before the 1890s, when it was finally torn up and replaced with standard gauge (due to a decision by the British government to have one gauge across the country): The broader gauge would have been quite beneficial to passenger traffic. The narrower gauge means that cars need to sit above the wheels, which limits the diameter of the wheels and increases the ride height of the passenger compartment. With a broad enough gauge you could have the car in between the wheels, which would allow for larger diameter wheels and a lowered passenger compartment. Both of these factors would result in a smoother ride. This would have been more important historically as both suspension systems and rail quality have increased significantly, but it would still be beneficial.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:27
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XMNN posted:I think the common thread is just them having weird forms of government and being pretty Catholic. I think the case with Switzerland is the cantonal system, note how the map indicates "national" status. Regions have relatively high autonomy and certain legislative changes need both a majority of both votes and cantons in favour, so smaller rural cantons with low populations have higher proportional power. Its the same as US senators.
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Apr 18, 2014 21:23
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Rumda posted:
This map is really strange, Switzerland produces over half its energy by hydro and most of the rest by nuclear. It does import nuclear and coal power but also exports about the same, this is used to leverage hydro storage capacity by buying cheap and pumping water up and selling during peak hours.
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May 3, 2014 17:23
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