Robert DuHamel
Published 13 Aug 2019You’ve heard about it. You’ve read about it. You’ve watched the television documentaries. The de Havilland Comet. Two mysterious crashes in the Mediterranean near Rome. 56 people dead. The planes exploded in mid-air when their pressure cabins ruptured at the corners of the square windows. A hard lesson learned about pressurized airliners, square windows, and metal fatigue. But you haven’t heard the whole story. Find out what really happened in this first video in the series Aircrash Minority Report.
Thumbnail: a Convair XF2Y-1 Sea Dart breaking up after exceeding the stress limit of the airframe. The crashes of the de Havilland Comets would look similar.
References:
FAA Lessons Learned: de Havilland DH-106 Comet: https://lessonslearned.faa.gov/ll_mai…
Failure-Analysis-Case-Studies-II – David R. H. Jones: https://vietnamwcm.files.wordpress.co…
June 26, 2021
It Wasn’t the Square Windows – The de Havilland Comet Crashes – Aircrash Minority Report
June 25, 2021
The Birth of the Manhattan Project – WW2 Special
World War Two
Published 24 Jun 2021When nuclear fission was discovered, scientists theorized it could be used in an atomic bomb. Thus, the American Army sets up one of the biggest research projects in history: The Manhattan Project.
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L4: The Bren in 7.62mm NATO
Forgotten Weapons
Published 10 Mar 2021http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
https://www.floatplane.com/channel/Fo…
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When the British military transitioned from the .303 British cartridge to 7.62mm NATO in the 1950s, it replaced the Enfield rifles with the new L1A1 SLR (the FAL) but retained the Bren gun as a support weapon. The Bren was updated to use 7.62mm, in a process more complicated than most people would think. Ultimately, only a few thousand L4 series Brens were made, as they were rather quickly supplanted by the FN MAG as a belt-fed support weapon.
The four different patterns of L4 are:
L4A1 – the initial pattern, without magazine supports
L4A2 – the Bren MkIII in 7.62mm with magazine supports
L4A3 – the Bren MkII in 7.62mm with magazine supports
L4A4 – the A2 and A3 patterns with chrome-lined barrelsContact:
Forgotten Weapons
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Tucson, AZ 85740
QotD: Moore’s Law
Moore’s Law is a violation of Murphy’s Law. Everything gets better and better.
Gordon Moore, quoted in “Happy Birthday: Moore’s Law at 40”, The Economist, 2005-03-26
June 24, 2021
Rex Krueger on the real starter kit for hand tool woodworking
I just got Rex’s new book the other day and I meant to put up a post about it, but I forgot, so I’m borrowing the introduction from his most recent Fabrication First newsletter to rectify my error:
There’s a kind of video on YouTube. There are dozens of versions. Each one promises that you can “Get Started Woodworking for Less Than $1000!” or the title proclaims: “Start Woodworking: 5 Tools You NEED.”
I hate these videos.
For a second, let’s ignore the fact that $1000 is a fantastic sum of money. Let’s ignore the fact that hardly anyone can cough up that much cash to just get started on a hobby. Instead, let’s focus on the fact that none of the tools in these videos are necessary.
None of them.
Most of these videos focus on power saws. They tell you that a table saw and a miter saw are essential. They might cover alternatives like a track saw or inexpensive circular saw, but none of them tell you that you don’t need ANY electric saws to get started. You also don’t need a cordless drill, a router, a drill press, or an electric lathe. All of these tools are expensive and many of them are dangerous. They all produce dust that you really don’t want to breathe and they take up a lot of space. The idea that you need these things just to get started is absurd.
Of course, this is a lot of big talk from me. If I don’t think you need to buy all the plug-in tools, if I think it’s crazy to ask people to spend that much money, then I better have an alternative. I better have an effective, inexpensive and safer way to get started. And it turns out, I do. And I just wrote a whole book about it.
The book is based on a simple idea: take a person with no tools and no woodworking experience and get them learning the craft as quickly, safely, and cheaply as possible. By the end of the book, even a raw beginner should be making real, useful projects. If it sounds crazy, it shouldn’t. It’s completely possible.
First Arab-Israeli War 1948 – Political Background – COLD WAR
The Cold War
Published 31 Aug 2019Our series on the history of the Cold War period continues with a documentary explaining the political background of the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948.
To learn about the military events of this conflict, go to the Kings and Generals channel
Consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thecoldwar
The Founder | Based on a True Story
The Cynical Historian
Published 27 Jul 2017This one is a contender for best historical film of 2016. The Founder is an amazing movie about the beginning of the McDonald’s food chain. Seriously, more films should take cues from this.
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references:
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/ree…http://time.com/money/4602541/the-fou…
http://content.time.com/time/magazine…
https://www.bustle.com/p/how-accurate…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert…
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain…
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/bu…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-24…
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-real-…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kroc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard…
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contribute to my Patreon:
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Wiki:
The Founder is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. The film stars Michael Keaton as businessman Ray Kroc, and portrays the story of his creation of the McDonald’s fast food chain. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch co-star as McDonald’s founders Richard and Maurice McDonald.The film premiered at Arclight Hollywood on December 7, 2016 and was released in the United States on January 20, 2017, by The Weinstein Company. It grossed $23 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for Keaton’s performance.
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Hashtags: #History #TheFounder #McDonalds #Review #BasedOnATrueStory #RayKroc
QotD: The fantasy world of Canadian geopolitical posturing
There are two basic things you need to know about Canada’s position in the world. The first is that we are bordered on three sides by ocean. The second is that we are bordered on the fourth side by the United States. That is a simple geopolitical reality whether we like it or not — and Canadians have expended a great deal of energy over the past half century or so making it clear just how much we dislike it.
Yet for all the reflexive anti-Americanism that has been the meat and mead of Canadian nationalism, Canada’s leadership class has usually been pretty good about understanding who is in charge. Over the course of the 20th century, from the Ogdensburg agreement of 1940 and the post-war establishment of NORAD to the Free Trade Agreement of 1988, we cemented that reality with a defence and economic alliance.
Paradoxically, what this continental defence and economic security arrangement has given us is the opportunity to let our internationalist pretensions run wild. One of the weirdest things about Canada is the extent to which we like to frame our place in the world in a-geographic terms. We imagine that we are as threatened as anyone by the mix of post-Cold War failed states, opportunistic terrorism, regional authoritarianism, and humanitarian disasters. By the same token, we like to presume that we are as well-positioned as any other country to do something about all of this.
As the dean of Canadian defence policy Kim Nossal points out in a recent paper, this a-geographic security fantasy is reflected in the official defence reviews that Canadian governments have released since the 1990s. Or take, for example, the 2017 Liberal policy statement, entitled Strong, Secure, Engaged, which rejects the idea that Canada’s privileged geographic location mitigates these global threats for us. As Nossal concludes, when you look at how Canadian governments actually talk about our security situation, you get little sense that, thanks to the Americans, Canada occupies “one of the safest spaces in contemporary global politics.”
You can see the logical leaps, then.
Once you’ve convinced yourself that Canada’s security is disconnected from the geographical imperative of the American security guarantee, it’s only a few steps to the conclusion that who we choose as our global strategic partner is actually a meaningful choice. And if it is true, as China’s president Xi Jinping has claimed, that the East is on the rise and the West is in decline, then why not throw your lot in with the new big dog on the block?
Andrew Potter, “Hedging our bets with China was a mistake”, The Line, 2021-03-23.
June 23, 2021
The RAF and Luftwaffe Bombers of Western Europe – WW2 Special
World War Two
PUblished 22 Jun 2021What aircraft are being sent out by commanders like Hermann Göring and Arthur Harris to blitz and firebomb enemy cities? Watch the video to learn the specs of the Handley Page Halifax, Avro Lancaster, Junkers Ju-88, Dornier Do-17, Dornier Do-217, and Heinkel He-111 as they fly in their respective 1,000 Bomber Raids and Baedeker Blitz.
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Tank Chats #112 | Churchill Mk I and II | The Tank Museum
The Tank Museum
Published 4 Dec 2020Tank Museum Historian David Fletcher discusses the British Second World War Churchill Mark I, the very first Churchill, as well as its successor, the Mark II. This chat also covers the development of the A20 prototype and how this became the production Mark I variant. The Churchill displayed is actually a Mark II made to look like a Mark I, and is the oldest surviving Churchill in the UK.
Support the work of The Tank Museum on Patreon: ► https://www.patreon.com/tankmuseum
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QotD: Churchill’s support for Stalin
Churchill threw all of his support behind Stalin’s armies despite Stalin’s alliance with Hitler during the first 21 months of the war — the USSR having invaded the same number of countries as Nazi Germany (seven), having supplied the German Wehrmacht as it invaded France and the Low Countries, and having literally fueled the Luftwaffe as it bombed London in 1940.
This support was more than rhetorical. In a gesture of astonishing (and short-sighted) selflessness, Churchill responded to news of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union by sending Stalin 200 brand-new Hawker Hurricane pursuit planes which had been pledged to defend Singapore against Japanese attack. Churchill then “re-gifted” Stalin 200 Tomahawk fighters and 300 Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers from Britain’s own Lend-Lease consignments, and shipped Stalin 2,000 tonnes of processed aluminum for Soviet warplane factories, despite it being desperately needed at home.
Even more striking was Churchill’s decision to ship Stalin nearly 600 tanks, which helped tip the balance in the Battle of Moscow in December 1941. Churchill even agreed to strip Cairo command of hundreds more tanks in 1942, routing them to Stalin’s USSR via Iran to bail out the Red Army at Stalingrad, which left Egypt vulnerable to Rommel’s Afrika Korps.
Churchill doubled down on his pro-Soviet policies even in areas where Britain had her own clients, such as Yugoslavia. Despite hosting the Yugoslav exile government in London, by September 1943, Churchill abandoned that government’s commander on the ground and threw his full support behind Stalin’s man, Josip Broz (“Tito”). Bamboozled by a Soviet smear campaign against Colonel Draža Mihailovic, Churchill cut off Mihailovic’s Chetniks and shipped Tito more than 100 times more war materiel over the next nine months than Mihailovic had received in the previous two years.
Sean McMeekin, “Churchill’s enigma: the real riddle is why he cozied up to Stalin”, Spectator, 2021-03-21.
June 22, 2021
History Summarized: The Athenian Temple at Sounio
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 29 Sep 2017On my summer vacation, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Cape Sounio, at the southern tip of Attica at sunset, and I have to say it was one of the most historically exciting moments of my life. For all I myself have said about the Athenian empire, seeing the view from this temple made everything click into place and feel tangibly real for the first time ever (even my 10+ trips to the Parthenon over the course of my childhood didn’t do that). So uh … here’s 7 minutes of me gushing about it under the thin guise of persuasive historical argumentation.
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