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Trin Tragula posted:
This guy apparently thinks "women cause wars with their shopping habits and governments are more stable with monarchies" which sounds less whimsical and more weirdly courtly MRA but I guess magic is different in NZ
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Nov 7, 2015 02:33
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I'm moderately certain I probably don't like his politics (but I find NZ/Aussie politics to be totally different from US politics, so who knows), but he sure as poo poo sounds like a fun guy. quote:On 8 September 2003 the Wizard's large wooden house was destroyed by a fire, which Christchurch police treated as arson. The Wizard, his partner and two boarders were lucky to escape with their lives and the Wizard's extensive book and video collections were destroyed. The Wizardmobile, constructed from the front halves of two VW Beetles, was also attacked and damaged. ... Harry? When did you leave Chicago? quote:After the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake the Wizard planned to retire and leave Christchurch for good saying the town he loved had gone and that it was the end of an era. He will be going with his mother to Oamaru, but not before wading through knee-deep water to help rescue Resthome manager Sue Milligan's dog "Molly". quote:"Molly"  Aesop Poprock posted:This guy apparently thinks "women cause wars with their shopping habits and governments are more stable with monarchies" which sounds less whimsical and more weirdly courtly MRA but I guess magic is different in NZ There, I knew I was going to have an issue with his politics.
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Nov 7, 2015 02:40
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Trin Tragula posted:
New Zealand is named after Zeeland, in the Netherlands. Fun fact: The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered much of Australia on his voyage of exploration there in 1642. Captain Cook was the next known European to visit and discovered even more when he went there in 1769. According to Cook's records, he was referring to two Dutch sources at the time he made his voyage. What the second source was remains unclear, and we have no record of it, but they have recently found a Dutch wreck off the coast of New Zealand that seems to be undocumented, and may have been a part of the second expedition which Cook was referring to. twoday has a new favorite as of 02:59 on Nov 7, 2015 |
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Nov 7, 2015 02:57
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Attila the Hun is probably a name you've heard. He was basically the Genghis Khan of his time, really. He carved out the massive Hunnic Empire and did a really quick job of it. Dude didn't gently caress around; he ran around conquering everything in sight as hard as he loving could. Then he married an attractive young lady and celebrated by getting absurdly drunk, smashing his face into something hard, and dying of a nosebleed.
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Nov 7, 2015 03:41
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twoday posted:New Zealand is named after Zeeland, in the Netherlands. Not to be confused with Zealand in Denmark.
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Nov 7, 2015 04:57
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Frostwerks posted:Not to be confused with Zealand in Denmark. Not to be confused with the Principality of Sealand in the North Sea.
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Nov 7, 2015 05:05
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 -The constitution of -The first time Europeans saw firearms and grenades was probably in 1241 when the Mongols used them in the battle of Mohi during their invasion of Hungary. -The Spanish conquered the Aztec empire in about 2 years. It took them about 170 years to fully defeat the Mayans. Mostly because the Aztecs had a fairly centralized state but the Mayan civilization was a huge mess of loosely connected villages and once mighty but decaying city states It didn't help that the Mayans were a lot poorer than the Aztecs which meant less loot which is very bad for motivating soldiers. -The "S" in Hary S. Truman name stood for S. Just S. FreudianSlippers has a new favorite as of 05:23 on Nov 7, 2015 |
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Nov 7, 2015 05:19
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Anosmoman posted:Not to be confused with the Principality of Sealand in the North Sea. or the principality of Hutt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River
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Nov 7, 2015 05:29
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I did not know I was opening such a can of worms with my "fact." XMNN posted:There's only one way to resolve this. More fun facts: Two aristocratic sisters in seventeenth-century France fought a duel. The younger sister killed the older one. With a sling. Citation Prince Rupert of the Rhine, nephew of Charles I of Egland (beheaded by Parliamentarians) and cousin of Charles II (who retook the throne after Cromwell died) fought in the English Civil War and on the continent. He conducted scientific experiments, studied philosophy and mathematics, and had a skill for breaking codes. He also had a white poodle named Boye who was a celebrity in his own right. According to Parliamentarian propaganda. Boye was Prince Rupert's familiar and had many powers of his own, such as telling the future, invulnerability to poison, and catching bullets that were fired at Prince Rupert in his mouth. Boye sat next to (and sometimes in) the King's chair at meals and was unofficially declared a Sergeant Major General. He eventually was shot and killed in battle. A good dog, apart from all the witchcraft.
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Nov 7, 2015 08:11
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doodlebugs posted:Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who fought for the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army and the German Wehrmacht. This guy would be the luckiest unlucky gently caress alive were it not for the dude who survived both atomic bombings.
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Nov 7, 2015 16:18
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Invisible Clergy posted:Thanks for this. I'm really enjoying it so far. your description is fair and accurate. 
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Nov 7, 2015 16:26
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trickybiscuits posted:The Oxford English Dictionary. I'll check it when I go to the library this weekend. doodlebugs posted:Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who fought for the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army and the German Wehrmacht. 
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Nov 7, 2015 16:37
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Blue Footed Booby posted:This guy would be the luckiest unlucky gently caress alive were it not for the dude who survived both atomic bombings. In 1914 there was a Royal Navy midshipman who rejoiced in the truly epic name of Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave. On the 22nd of September, the poor sod managed to get himself torpedoed three times in an hour.
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Nov 7, 2015 22:13
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Trin Tragula posted:In 1914 there was a Royal Navy midshipman who rejoiced in the truly epic name of Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave. On the 22nd of September, the poor sod managed to get himself torpedoed three times in an hour. And just to clarify for others, three times as in three different ships.
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Nov 7, 2015 22:18
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CroatianAlzheimers posted:It was also the basis for the fictional fight between HM Brig Sophie and the xebec Cacafuego from Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. In fact, Lord Cochrane was the model for O'Brian's Captain Jack Aubrey, the only fictional character I wish was my dad. Cacafuego AKA Shitfire, was what Sir Francis Drake's expedition called the Spanish Treasure galleon they captured off the coast of Peru. So there's another little historical wink there.
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Nov 8, 2015 01:43
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Communist Zombie posted:And just to clarify for others, three times as in three different ships. It being the navy I had assumed quite a different type of torpedoing
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Nov 8, 2015 07:17
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The ancient Greeks tended to name things for what they gave to man. Therefore, the ancient Greek word for ivory is elepanhantine. The animal is named for its ivory. Sadly, that may ultimately prove its undoing.
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Nov 8, 2015 10:40
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Not ancient history*, but according to this post and some googling, I learned that there was a non-gameplay reason why the character Johnny Cage doesn't appear in Mortal Kombat 3: the actor/Guy Who Was Photographed As Cage appeared in a competitor's fighting game ad, pretty much as Johnny Cage. * It counts as history to me, dammit. I wondered that as a kid.
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Nov 8, 2015 22:06
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quote:Nero finally had to poison her to get rid of her. FreudianSlippers posted:-The Spanish conquered the Aztec empire in about 2 years. It took them about 170 years to fully defeat the Mayans. Mostly because the Aztecs had a fairly centralized state but the Mayan civilization was a huge mess of loosely connected villages and once mighty but decaying city states It didn't help that the Mayans were a lot poorer than the Aztecs which meant less loot which is very bad for motivating soldiers.
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Nov 8, 2015 22:32
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But those guys had plenty of heart!
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Nov 8, 2015 22:40
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doodlebugs posted:Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who fought for the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army and the German Wehrmacht. I thought what a massive oval office before I read it and found out the poor bugger was press-ganged.
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Nov 8, 2015 22:47
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It can be argued that black/white racial tensions in America are directly caused by the Virginia Slave Code of 1705, which was a response to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. The rebellion itself came about for reasons ranging from the people living on the frontier feeling neglected by the Virginia Company, the colony's administrative body, to Nathan Bacon holding a grudge over personal slights committed by William Berkley, then the Governor of Virginia. Motivations aside, the rebellion was significant because it featured white indentured servants and black slaves, who made up the bulk of Bacon's "army", fighting together against their masters. Though the indentured servants were slaves only temporarily, they were treated almost exactly the same as the permanent slaves. This inevitably led to the indentured servants and slaves seeing themselves as comrades against the gentry and private land owners. To prevent future alliances between the white lower class and black slaves, the House of Burgesses, then Virginia's legislative assembly, passed a series of laws that legally "elevated" the indentured servants by taking away the rights of all black people under the Virginia Company's rule, whether they were slaves or "free men".
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Nov 8, 2015 23:56
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XMNN posted:I was going to say extensive scientific experimentation, but I suppose that might also work. MizPiz posted:It can be argued that black/white racial tensions in America are directly caused by the Virginia Slave Code of 1705, which was a response to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. The rebellion itself came about for reasons ranging from the people living on the frontier feeling neglected by the Virginia Company, the colony's administrative body, to Nathan Bacon holding a grudge over personal slights committed by William Berkley, then the Governor of Virginia. Motivations aside, the rebellion was significant because it featured white indentured servants and black slaves, who made up the bulk of Bacon's "army", fighting together against their masters. Though the indentured servants were slaves only temporarily, they were treated almost exactly the same as the permanent slaves. This inevitably led to the indentured servants and slaves seeing themselves as comrades against the gentry and private land owners. To prevent future alliances between the white lower class and black slaves, the House of Burgesses, then Virginia's legislative assembly, passed a series of laws that legally "elevated" the indentured servants by taking away the rights of all black people under the Virginia Company's rule, whether they were slaves or "free men". In another case, Stuyvesant's predecessor, Willem Keift, freed some slaves and granted them land. I was so frustrated when I heard that because it makes it more difficult to continue hating Keift, the worst director general EVER, who treated the Lenape-speaking tribes around Manhattan so appallingly that they stopped fighting amongst themselves and attacked the Dutch. Then I found out that the land Keift granted the freed slaves was outside New Amsterdam's defensive wall (the site of New York's Wall Street), so they were really put there to be another layer between the Indians and the Dutch whites. He also armed the West India Company's slaves, not enough to make them dangerous to their masters, but enough to make the Indians see blacks as being on the same side as whites. So I can keep hating Keift and saying that the only decent thing he ever did was to help out Father Isaac Jogues after the Dutch had ransomed Jogues from the Mohawks. Willem Keift was an rear end in a top hat. NY's Crailo State Historic Site has an exhibit on slavery and the Dutch, there's lots of interesting info there. A totally unrelated fact: director Werner Herzog filmed his most famous movie, Fitzcarraldo, in Peru during a period of political unrest. He managed to get permission to finish the movie by getting a shooting permit signed by the Peruvian president, from the capital city of Lima. It was completely forged. Source: An Evening with Werner Herzog at about 41:38. But watch the whole video because Herzog has amazing stories. Fitzcarraldo itself was based on a real story, so maybe watch that too.
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Nov 9, 2015 00:50
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Some of this is probably rumors made up by his enemies but the fact that their considered credible says a lot about King Farouk of Egypt. http://madmonarchs.guusbeltman.nl/madmonarchs/farouk/farouk_bio.htm quote:...Freed from tutelage, Farouk used to go to nightclubs, and then sleep the whole morning. He had caviar for breakfast, eating it directly from a can. Large quantities of boiled eggs, toast, lobster, steak, lamb, chicken, and pigeon usually followed. He liked fizzy drinks and drank at least 30 bottles a day. After having a series of nightmares about lions, Farouk went to Cairo Zoo, and shot its lions in their cage. The nightmares, however, continued. 
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Nov 9, 2015 03:48
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trickybiscuits posted:Fitzcarraldo itself was based on a real story, so maybe watch that too. Fitzcarraldo the movie is actually more hardcore than real life, because when the event it was based on was portaging the boat over the mountain, they disassembled it first. Speaking of, the way Constantinople was won by the Ottomans involved portaging half their navy over what is now the modern-day Galata district to get into the golden horn, the city's cloistered harbour. There is a palace on the waterfront in the spot where the Sultan's ships made landfall there today. The reason they had to do this was because of the Byzantines/ERE's famous chain. On each side of the horn they had a winch tower, which in a crisis they would turn to draw up the chain, which normally rests on the seabed, but sat just above the water line to bisect any ship that dared enter. The only person to defeat the chain is said to be King Harald Hardrada of Norway (long story), weighing down the aft of his shallow longboat, and then shifting the weight to "surf" over it and escape from the city.
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Nov 9, 2015 04:49
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Frogfingers posted:The only person to defeat the chain is said to be King Harald Hardrada of Norway (long story), weighing down the aft of his shallow longboat, and then shifting the weight to "surf" over it and escape from the city. Part of that story is that from the 10th to the 14th century, Byzantine Emperors employed Germanic mercenaries (mostly Scandinavian vikings) as their personal guards. The Varangian Guard (Varangians were what the Greeks called vikings) was officially created in 988 by Emperor Basil II, though Varangians have been employed by previous emperors for over 100 year prior. Basil II requested military assistance from Vladimir I of Kiev, who responded by sending 6,000 troops to Constantinople. Since the Byzantine guards were infamous for their fickle loyalties, where as the Varangians were renowned for being true to their words and oaths, Basil II formed the Guard to be both his bodyguards and personal army. More often than not, the Varangian Guard served in the latter role, being deployed as marines, across the empire's frontier, and to put down rebellions. King Harald is said to have served in every corner of the Empire. As for why he fled, short story is that a Byzantine general insulted the leader of a Lombard mercenary band. They subsequently deserted, followed by the Norman bands and some members of the Varangian Guard, of which King Harald was one.
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Nov 9, 2015 09:11
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The Battle of Towton (1461) - the bloodiest battle no one has heard about.quote:"If you compare that to the first day at the Somme where we had 10,000 British casualties; to then have three times that many casualties at Towton, you can only imagine what the melee, the man-to-man cut and thrust could be like. Towton is a battle fought during the Wars of the Roses with Lancastrians on one side and Yorkists on the other. The figures are disputed but it is estimated that each side had about 40k men and that by the end of the day around 50% of them were dead, or about 1% of the total population of England. or 5% of all men of a fighting age. Pretty much everyone living in England at that time would have known someone who died at Towton. The wounds suffered by the men are also unusual in that most seem to be head wounds and it is thought that the reason the number of dead is so high is that "no quarter" was agreed on before the battle and stuck too in the aftermath. http://www.economist.com/node/17722650 quote:THE soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough—somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died—to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out. The death toll was so high that the Lancastrians were unable to muster another army for 3 years and led to the crowning of the Yorkist Edward IV. PlantHead has a new favorite as of 14:53 on Nov 9, 2015 |
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Nov 9, 2015 10:56
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It's not really a major historic fact, but I always found it strangely nice that the best known British song about Napoleon Bonaparte just tells his history and doesn't actually insult him at all.
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Nov 9, 2015 12:07
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During one of Egypt's many rebellions against Achaemenid rule, the rebels hired a group of Athenian mercenaries who sailed up the Nile to help in the defense of the Egyptian capitol. When they were routed, the mercenaries started to sail back down the Nile to the sea, but were eventually forced onto an island in the Nile where they formed a thick, nearly impenetrable defensive line around the island with their boats and they holed up for months waiting for the Persians to give up and leave. The Persians, however, had a different plan. Their engineering corps dug canals to reroute the Nile around the section with the island, allowing the Persian soldiers to simply walk past the now beached ships and slaughter the Athenians. To be fair to the mercs, it was a good plan if they weren't going against the one group of people who were both angry enough at the Greeks and technologically competent enough to drain the loving Nile to win.
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Nov 9, 2015 16:31
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Hedningen posted:Georg Brandes, the leader of the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough, was famed for both his lectures and his numerous, repeated affairs. After breaking it off with Victoria Benedictsson and giving her latest novel a poor review, she killed herself by slitting her throat with a razor in front of a mirror in a hotel. That suicide was the inspiration for the suicide in Strindberg's Miss Julie. I do genealogy, and an ancestor hanged himself in police custody in Copenhagen 1881, so I was looking for records on him some time ago. In the police archives, there was a register of suicides & accidental deaths covering 1878–1907. After finding my ancestor, I leafed through it for a while out of morbid fascination and took a picture of this page:  Third from the bottom is Victoria. The two rightmost columns are method (Snitsaar i Halsen = cuts to the neck) and presumed reason (Livslede = life-loathing). Unfortunately the Copenhagen police cases on suicides 1863–1949 have been lost.
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Nov 9, 2015 16:32
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What is life-loathing and why was it punished by cuts to the neck? Seems to be what the life loather would be into.
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Nov 9, 2015 16:44
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Peebla posted:What is life-loathing and why was it punished by cuts to the neck? Seems to be what the life loather would be into. What? No, it was a suicide, because she hated (loathed) life.
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Nov 9, 2015 17:00
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A series of Parisian newspaper headlines on Napoleon's march back from exile: March 9: THE CANNIBAL HAS LEFT HIS DEN March 10: THE CORSICAN OGRE HAS LANDED AT CAPE JUAN March 11: THE TIGER HAS ARRIVED AT CAP March 12: THE MONSTER SLEPT AT GRENOBLE March 13: THE TYRANT HAS PASSED THOUGH LYONS March 14: THE USURPER IS DIRECTING HIS STEPS TOWARDS DIJON March 18: BONAPARTE IS ONLY SIXTY LEAGUES FROM THE CAPITAL March 19: BONAPARTE IS ADVANCING WITH RAPID STEPS, BUT HE WILL NEVER ENTER PARIS March 20: NAPOLEON WILL TOMORROW BE UNDER OUR RAMPARTS March 21: THE EMPEROR IS AT FONTAINEBLEAU March 22: HIS IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MAJESTY ARRIVED YESTERDAY EVENING AT THE TUILERIES, AMID THE JOYFUL ACCLAMATION OF HIS DEVOTED AND FAITHFUL SUBJECTS
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Nov 9, 2015 18:18
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ArchangeI posted:What? No, it was a suicide, because she hated (loathed) life. Yeah, livslede would be more akin to "sick of living" in modern English.
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Nov 9, 2015 18:27
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Some fun facts about ancient Egypt: Ramesses II had 96 sons and 60 daughters. He outlived many of them. If you were hungover you were entitled to a paid sick day from work. The first recorded strike happened in the 12th century BC. Craftsmen who were working on tombs in the Valley of Kings were not given rations and decided to stop working. Women in ancient Egypt was equal to men. They could lend money, divorce, received equal pay as their male colleagues and could sell and buy property. They could even make a prenup. Ancient Egypt had at least three female heads of state. Modern America has so far had none. Some Egyptian tombs had curses written on them to fend of grave robbers, the tomb of Tutankhamun didn't. Cleopatra was the first member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty to speak Egyptian.
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Nov 9, 2015 18:58
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Alhazred posted:Ancient Egypt had at least three female heads of state. Modern America has so far had none. Ancient Egypt lasted for ~3000 years, call back at roughly 4700 AD
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Nov 9, 2015 19:01
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Alhazred posted:The first recorded strike happened in the 12th century BC. Craftsmen who were working on tombs in the Valley of Kings were not given rations and decided to stop working. I've seen this mentioned twice now and nobody has brought up just what the rations were. Specifically, they were onions and mascara. Mascara you say? Yes, for the still-common practice of painting the area around one's eyes black to cut down on glare. "You cheapskates want us on-site without our makeup on? Out, brothers!"
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Nov 9, 2015 19:13
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Loxbourne posted:I've seen this mentioned twice now and nobody has brought up just what the rations were. Specifically, they were onions and mascara. Lead-based eye makeup, no less. You'd probably see a strike at a modern US construction site if the foreman restricted use of sunglasses.
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Nov 9, 2015 19:19
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Loxbourne posted:I've seen this mentioned twice now and nobody has brought up just what the rations were. Specifically, they were onions and mascara. They didn't just want onions: "The prospect of hunger and thirst has driven us to this; there is no clothing, there is no ointment, there is no fish, there are no vegetables. Send to Pharaoh, our good lord, about it, and send to the vizier, our superior, that we may be supplied with provisions."
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Nov 9, 2015 19:23
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Loxbourne posted:Mascara you say? Yes, for the still-common practice of painting the area around one's eyes black to cut down on glare. You could see some raccoon-faced sailors as late as WW2.
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Nov 9, 2015 19:27
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