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If it's anything like a few of my failed meads, uh yeah not good.
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Nov 12, 2018 17:12
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 00:36 |
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People were smaller back then. Promachus was only like 3 feet tall.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:15
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Fo3 posted:Considering they didn't understand yeast and didn't breed strains able to handle themselves to that %alc, I call BS. Only modern day bred for high alc yeast can handle 20% without dying themselves (E: and you'd have to baby it because it would run hot and short with fermentation being exothermic so it needs cooling to be kept happy) Due to poor sanitation, I had some wild yeast turn a batch of what was going to be strong ale into 21% death metal. I had been shooting for 11%. The yeast I pitched never had a chance. The whole shooting match fermented to piss yellow within one day. It lost all beer-like flavor. It just tasted like alcohol and hops with an effervescent feel on the tongue. There was still some sweetness, but hardly noticeable. It had the aftertaste of a Lambic. I ended up turning it into a pseudo Framboise by adding about 5 lbs of fresh raspberries that I boiled down into a slurry. It re-fermented a bit and changed the flavor. It didn't turn out very sweet at all. You could taste the raspberries, but they were very much on the tart side. 6 months after bottling, it was the best thing ever. I gave it away as gifts and people loved it. It tasted like nothing you've ever had. Unfortunately, I can't repeat it. I have my notes for how I made it, but I don't know the contaminant. TLDR: Over 20% is possible, and sometimes good, with wild yeast.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:25
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There was word of Falernian wine from Rome being so alcoholic that you could light it on fire, but the flash point of alcohol varies depending on the ABV. A wine of 12.5% ABV (so your typical wine) can be lit on fire at 126 degrees Fahrenheit, which is easily doable with any source of flame. My personal guess would be in the 8% to 15% range normally, as they would be reliant on an accident with wild yeast to get to 20% or above and it's much more common to be around 12% or so. What's really interesting about ancient wine is that it's believed that rosé was actually the typical "red wine" of the time, as making proper red wine requires hard presses and extensive maceration to extract all of the compounds from the skin. Making white or rosé is much easier and takes less time.
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Nov 13, 2018 01:27
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No wonder Alexander reputedly drank himself to death.
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Nov 13, 2018 05:08
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In 1953, there was a US-backed coup to install a more US-friendly government in Iran. Obviously, it didn't take, and the people rebelled and elected a leader who was against the US in 1979. Can't say I blame 'em. The fun fact is that the friendly government of Iran had recently bought a bunch of F-14 fighter jets (the stars of Top Gun, for the kids/non-airplane-nerds). The revolution happened just before the last F-14 for the Iranian order rolled off the production line. The US Navy (the only other operator of the type) just kinda straight-up stole it for themselves, because we couldn't give it to our now-enemies for obvious reasons, even though they'd already paid for it. Also Iran is still flying at least some of the things almost 40 years later despite them having a reputation for ... well, the kind way to say it is "needing a lot of maintenance per flying hour," and the US Government doing its damnedest to keep them from getting black-market spare parts. Of course, the Iranians almost had a nuclear program until Israel/the US bombed/sabotaged the plutonium factories, surely they can make parts for a jet designed in the mid-'60s and started production in the early '70s in-house no problem. They may not be able to get original Grumman-built takeoffs from the former USN fleet, but they can sure as hell buy a Chinese knockoff of a Haas CNC mill (pretty sure the American companies aren't allowed to sell to them) and copy what they already have.
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Nov 14, 2018 05:39
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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The guy who drew that political cartoon of a merry fatass farting on a picture of King George (That is TREASON Johnny!) was a prolific cartoonist and died super early, of typhus at the age of 21
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Nov 15, 2018 23:24
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Suspect Bucket posted:I cant find the exact quote (will keep looking when I'm not on mobile), but when limits on passenger pigeon hunting was proposed, one legislator claimed that it was impossible for guns to even put a dent in pigeon numbers, they were simply too numerous to ever go into decline. Sort of true - the reason they were so numerous then all died out was because they were a r-selected species in a wildly disrupted North American ecosystem. It's the classic cycle good food results in the population swelling to billions, then the population collapses to basically nothing once they eat it all, except on steroids. Of course hunting a species in the bust part of the boom/bust cycle works pretty drat well at wiping them out, turns out.
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Nov 16, 2018 00:42
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Dammit, quote is not edit. But what I meant to edit in was that the early models of the F-14 also had a habit of exploding in midair for seemingly no raisin.
Chillbro Baggins has a new favorite as of 00:48 on Nov 16, 2018 |
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Nov 16, 2018 00:43
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America has a rich tradition of being awful at designing fighter jets.
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Nov 16, 2018 01:19
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Chillbro Baggins posted:Dammit, quote is not edit. But what I meant to edit in was that the early models of the F-14 also had a habit of exploding in midair for seemingly no raisin. Will Vinton fanboys are a very unstable breed.
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Nov 16, 2018 01:25
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CharlestheHammer posted:America has a rich tradition of being awful at designing fighter jets.  
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Nov 16, 2018 01:37
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In the old west, women sometimes used a silver coin as a diafragm. Condoms existed but they were too expensive for most men, since it took a lot of labor to craft them.
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Nov 16, 2018 01:45
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I thought they would use sheep gut or something.
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Nov 16, 2018 01:48
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Solice Kirsk posted:I thought they would use sheep gut or something. They did. It just wasn't removed from the sheep first.
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Nov 16, 2018 03:18
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CharlestheHammer posted:America has a rich tradition of being awful at designing fighter jets. Defense procurement is eternal, some excerpts from Ian W. Toll's "Six Frigates" about the time the US tried to make a "Naval Militia" of gunboats because Thomas Jefferson's crowd was scared of the government using a standing navy to send boats of heavily armed sailors and marines to attack rebellious states. quote:The gunboats were never popular with the Federalists, who regarded them as poor substitutes for frigates and ships of the line. On September 8, 1804, during a “dreadful Storm,” the first American-built gunboat was driven from her moorings off Whitemarsh Island, Georgia, and landed high and dry in a corn field. She lay there, stranded, for almost two months. The Federalist newspaper Connecticut Courant gleefully commented that the gunboat might, if left in the field, “grow into a ship of the line by the time we go to war with Spain. Should this new experiment in agriculture succeed, we may expect to see the rice-swamps of Carolina and the tobacco fields of Virginia turned by our philosophical Government into dry-docks and gunboat gardens.” quote:As the first gunboats were launched and placed in service, criticism mounted. They were wet, cramped, and uncomfortable. It was often difficult to recruit full complements of seamen to man them. Officers took the first opportunity to be transferred into a frigate. When a Norfolk gunboat cap-sized and sank in six fathoms of water, Stephen Decatur dryly asked a fellow officer: “What would be the real national loss if all gunboats were sunk in a hundred fathoms of water?” And from when they built the actual frigates earlier on: quote:Washington wanted the six frigates built in six different seaports, to be chosen based on “wealth and populousness,” both to spread the financial benefits and to ensure that a handful of Philadelphia Quakers would not become the nation’s exclusive source of expertise in the construction of ships of war. Knox proposed to build the four larger ships specified in the act of Congress—the 44-gun frigates—in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Joshua Humphreys would build Philadelphia’s 44-gun vessel in his Southwark shipyard. The two 36-gun frigates would be built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Norfolk, Virginia. Washington ordered one change. He desired that one of the 44s be built in Norfolk, in his home state of Virginia. Baltimore would instead build one of the smaller ships. quote:The master builders in each city received their instructions in July. They were told that they must “undeviatingly adhere” to the drafts and models sent from Philadelphia. To keep the program under budget, they were warned to “observe the highest degree of economy…whether of materials, or labor of the workmen.” On the other hand, they would be personally responsible for making certain that “no materials, of any sort, enter into the construction of the said ship, but of the best quality.” quote:At a quarter past noon on November 23, 1797, Adams delivered the opening address to the second session of the Fifth Congress. Whatever the outcome of the Paris talks, he said, the United States must have a navy. In a world in which “pride, ambition, avarice, and violence have been so long unrestrained,” the nation’s maritime commerce could not survive without naval protection. And commerce, said Adams, was essential to the American people: “The genius, character, and habits of the people are highly commercial; their cities have been founded and exist upon commerce; our agriculture, fisheries, arts, and manufactures are connected with, and must depend upon it. In short, commerce has made this country what it is, and it cannot be destroyed or neglected without involving the people in poverty and distress.”
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Nov 16, 2018 03:27
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“Wasteful imbecility” still applies to this administration
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Nov 16, 2018 04:15
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C.M. Kruger posted:And from when they built the actual frigates earlier on: Wait, so what happened? Did the US ever build a navy?
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Nov 16, 2018 04:16
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Cacafuego posted:"malignant imbecility” still applies to this administration
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Nov 16, 2018 04:19
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Duodecimal posted:Wait, so what happened? Did the US ever build a navy? Yes, and luckily the carriers were out at sea.
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Nov 16, 2018 04:32
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Duodecimal posted:Wait, so what happened? Did the US ever build a navy? Yes, and the world has suffered for it ever since.
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Nov 16, 2018 04:42
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Duodecimal posted:Wait, so what happened? Did the US ever build a navy? Yeah, last year.
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Nov 16, 2018 05:47
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Duodecimal posted:Wait, so what happened? Did the US ever build a navy? They built 2, that's why there's an entire store dedicated to selling off the Old one.
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Nov 16, 2018 07:18
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I have read at least one professionally published work of alternate history fiction which supposed that the USS Monitor could have beaten any Royal Navy ship in ship-to-ship combat if the British had been involved in the American Civil War. While I am ignorant of Anglo-American naval history in general outisde the tv adaptation of Hornblower, this strikes me as a little bit fanciful.
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Nov 16, 2018 13:10
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Wheat Loaf posted:I have read at least one professionally published work of alternate history fiction which supposed that the USS Monitor could have beaten any Royal Navy ship in ship-to-ship combat if the British had been involved in the American Civil War. While I am ignorant of Anglo-American naval history in general outisde the tv adaptation of Hornblower, this strikes me as a little bit fanciful. It’s not incredibly fanciful. In the Battle of Hampton Roads, the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia took out two frigates by herself with only two crew killed and relatively minor damage and engaged the USS Monitor the next day. Both of them basically just bounced shells off each other without penetrating (partly due to not having the absolute best cannon loads for the situation) until the Union captain was blinded and they had to withdraw. The battle was taken as a sign by European navies to immediately switch to armored ships.
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Nov 16, 2018 13:55
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The USS Monitor wasn’t without weakness, but yeah, I’d bet on it in a duel with any contemporary, provided the duel takes place in calm seas. Aside from being laughable vulnerable to waves, its pair of 11″ guns didn’t give it tremendous firepower. The shutters that were supposed to go down over the gun ports didn’t work well and in practice the crew ignored them, compensating by spinning the gun port out of harm’s way while reloading. It would still have taken great luck to damage it.
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Nov 16, 2018 14:14
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Duodecimal posted:Wait, so what happened? Did the US ever build a navy? Okay so after the revolutionary war congress decided we needed a navy, primarily because American merchantmen kept getting hassled by Barbary pirates, and later once the French revolutionary/Napoleonic wars kicked off both England and France started interdicting American ships because like any good neutral power we were selling goods to everybody. Six frigates were ordered, there was a ton of drama involved both due to politics and the shipwrights being primadonnas. The ships were eventually completed and were used in the Quasi War with France and in anti-piracy/anti-slave trade operations, but were mothballed because people kept going "instead of having a expensive navy let's just buy cheap gunboats and bribe the pirates." The ships then got taken in and out of service over the years for various times when they were needed such as the War of 1812 and the Barbary Wars.
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Nov 17, 2018 00:51
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Platystemon posted:The USS Monitor wasn’t without weakness, but yeah, I’d bet on it in a duel with any contemporary, provided the duel takes place in calm seas. Editors from the London Times basically asserted the only ship in the Royal Navy that could handle the USS Monitor was the HMS Warrior and it'd be suicide in any other ship. So realistically every Royal Navy ship wouldn't be plausible, but drat near all of them was a belief held by some at the time. Brute Hole Force has a new favorite as of 02:51 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 17, 2018 02:46
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There’s good reason the reaction to the Civil War ironclads was a sort of international “Oh gently caress” moment.
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Nov 17, 2018 02:48
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Then the United States cause another one a few decades later with its overwhelming victories in the Spanish-American War, which led to various colonial empires worrying about how to respond if the United States demanded some European islands to use as naval bases since this would allow the United States to meddle with the lives people on a completely different continent. The worst crime they could imagine.
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Nov 17, 2018 03:27
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I mean I think that’s less how impressive the US was and more how decayed and weak Spain was.
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Nov 17, 2018 03:31
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CharlestheHammer posted:I mean I think that’s less how impressive the US was and more how decayed and weak Spain was. Yeah, I'm not saying the US won against overwhelming odds or anything. The Spanish Empire had been in decline for over a century, and a lot of Spain's military power basically only existed on paper, I just like a bunch of colonial powers clutching their pearls at the horror of someone using their navy to impose their will uninvited on the people of another land.
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Nov 17, 2018 03:42
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The Russo-Japanese War definitely had that affect, because at least those illiterate hillbillies across the Atlantic are white men, but yellow men defeating any European empire. 
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Nov 17, 2018 03:50
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The whole deal with ironclads is they're specialised for river warfare and maybe the sea on a calm day, right? But guessing the principles in making them were soon applied to seagoing vessels.
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Nov 17, 2018 09:47
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Ghost Leviathan posted:The whole deal with ironclads is they're specialised for river warfare and maybe the sea on a calm day, right? But guessing the principles in making them were soon applied to seagoing vessels. The American ones used during the US Civil War were predominantly used/designed for riverine or coastal warfare, yeah but the French and British navies went straight in with ocean going ironclads- the Gloire in 1859 and HMS Warrior in 1860, both of which were relatively conventional designs compared to Monitor.
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Nov 17, 2018 10:03
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Iirc the Monitor’s underlooked advancement wasn’t just the armour but the fact it had a rotating turret.
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Nov 17, 2018 10:45
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Iirc the Monitor’s underlooked advancement wasn’t just the armour but the fact it had a rotating turret. And the fact that she carried enormous firepower for her size. Monitor was a pretty small ship by the standards of the era, and between the rotating turret, oversized cannons, and all-iron construction (like the HMS Warrior, she wasn't really an ironclad like the Virginia and HMS Gloire were), she was utterly superior to much larger wooden-hulled ships. There'd been some theories that sufficiently large batteries of guns might be able to batter apart an ironclad via stress and shock damage even if they couldn't penetrate the armor, but Monitor proved that wrong.
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Nov 17, 2018 15:21
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Cythereal posted:And the fact that she carried enormous firepower for her size. Monitor was a pretty small ship by the standards of the era, and between the rotating turret, oversized cannons, and all-iron construction (like the HMS Warrior, she wasn't really an ironclad like the Virginia and HMS Gloire were), she was utterly superior to much larger wooden-hulled ships. There'd been some theories that sufficiently large batteries of guns might be able to batter apart an ironclad via stress and shock damage even if they couldn't penetrate the armor, but Monitor proved that wrong.
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Nov 17, 2018 20:54
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Is there a tankie, but for boats?
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Nov 17, 2018 21:46
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 00:36 |
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That's not what tankie means. A boatie would be somebody who based their ideology around defending gunboat diplomacy.
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Nov 17, 2018 22:14
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