Quotulatiousness

July 6, 2019

History Summarized: Hong Kong

Filed under: Britain, China, History, Humour — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 5 Jul 2019

Sometimes small corners of the map can have outsized effects on the surrounding world. Hong Kong is undoubtedly one of History’s greatest examples of big things coming from small beginnings. If you’re curious about Hong Kong’s current political situation, there’s no better place to start than at the beginning.

LEARN MORE about Hong Kong’s current events:
China is Erasing its border with HK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQyxG…
HK’s huge protests, explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Rdn…

Further Historical Reading:
A Modern History of China — Steve Tsang https://www.amazon.com/Modern-History…

PATREON: https://www.Patreon.com/OSP

The Iron Bridge in Shropshire

Filed under: Britain, History, Technology — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Roger Henry sent along this information on the most recent restoration of the world’s oldest iron bridge near Coalbrookdale:

The Iron Bridge across the River Severn, completed in 1779. The first major bridge to be made of iron.
Photo by shirokazan via Wikimedia Commons.

Wikipedia says:

The Iron Bridge is a bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron, and was greatly celebrated after construction owing to its use of the new material.

In 1934 it was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and closed to vehicular traffic. Tolls for pedestrians were collected until 1950, when ownership of the bridge was transferred to Shropshire County Council. It now belongs to Telford and Wrekin Borough Council. The bridge, the adjacent settlement of Ironbridge and the Ironbridge Gorge form the UNESCO Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site. The bridge is a Grade I listed building, and a waypoint on the South Telford Heritage Trail.

Anthony Blackwall, who was the Shropshire County Bridgemaster, recounts the 1979 celebrations in “Historic Bridges of Shropshire”, Shropshire Libraries, 1985:

The most recent restoration was completed late in 2018:

The bridge, the first of its kind, was closed for a year after surveyors found cracks and stresses in its historic cast ironwork.

English Heritage launched a £3.6 million programme of repairs in autumn of 2017.

Kate Mavor, the charity’s CEO, came to the gorge to get a first-hand look at the historic bridge restored, and spoke of her pride.

“This is the first English Heritage site I remember coming to when I was about 11, and now it looks much the same as it did then.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it refurbished and I think it sits very nicely in the gorge, and with the red paint it will especially look good in autumn colours.

“I’ve been following the repairs closely since they began, it is an extraordinary project.

“The gorge is a world heritage site, the bridge was the first of its kind and it’s been there since 1779.

“It has survived a number of pernicious influences including an earthquake.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve been able to do here because it’s been unlike any other project of ours.

“We’re very grateful to everyone that has supported the project.

“The amazing response we had to English Heritage’s first ever crowdfunding campaign was fantastic too.”

Kate said that the surveys carried out before the project started revealed that the bridge had originally been painted a deep red, unlike the recognisable black or grey layer of recent years.

July 3, 2019

Tank Chats #51 TANKFEST 2017 | The Tank Museum

Filed under: Britain, France, Germany, History, Military, Technology, WW1 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The Tank Museum
Published on 25 May 2018

At TANKFEST 2017, the Musée des Blindés brought their unique Saint Chamond tank, which sat alongside the Museum’s replica Mark IV and A7V. David Fletcher took the opportunity to talk about the three First World War vehicles as they stood side-by-side.

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July 1, 2019

Theodore Dalrymple on “the ancient rhetorical tricks of suppressio veri and suggestio falsi“

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Media, Politics — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 05:00

In the New English Review a recent Theodore Dalrymple post on “inventing European identity”:

I doubt whether there is anyone who has never resorted to the ancient rhetorical tricks of suppressio veri and suggestio falsi. Some do it knowingly, others unknowingly. The omission of relevant facts and the insinuation of falsehoods are dual and often inseparable techniques that are the stock-in-trade of most practising politicians. Arguments have often to be schematic and if in theory it is possible to tell no falsehoods, it is virtually impossible not to suppress, or at least omit, some truths if a discussion of complex matters is not to be interminable.

Nevertheless, universal resort to error, whether honest or not, is no defence for those who utilise it. This is particularly so of intellectuals, whose metier above all is, or ought to be, honest argumentation. I was therefore intrigued to read an open letter published in the Guardian newspaper by what were described as “30 top intellectuals.”

The letter began with a ringing suggestio falsi: “The idea of Europe is in peril.” What the authors meant was that the idea of the European Union is in danger. They implied, in effect, that Europe and the European Union were synonyms, which is clearly false. If a country ceases to be a member of the European Union, or has never been a part of it, it does not cease to be European, neither geographically nor culturally.

The opening salvo sets the tone for the rest. Any opposition to the ever-closer union that is the aim of the European Union is characterized as purely irrational, nostalgic and even fascistic. It cannot by definition be founded on any rational considerations whatever. It success would be, as the authors put it, the triumph of “a politics of disdain for intelligence and culture” — which is in effect to say that anybody who opposes the proposed ever-closer union is either a demagogue or uncouth and stupid. Thus the top intellectuals, including five winners of the Nobel Prize and many world-famous writers, appear to have learned nothing from the single most disastrous phrase used in any recent election, Mrs. Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables.” Who is more stupid than whom?

The top intellectuals say of opponents of the drive towards a large federal state something like, “Let’s reconnect with our ‘national soul!’ Let’s rediscover out ‘lost identity’!” They go on to say, “Never mind that abstractions such as ‘soul’ and ‘identity’ often exist only in the imagination of demagogues.”

I overlook the fact that any British politician, however fervent a supporter of Brexit would never use a term such as “the British soul” for justified fear of being laughed out of court, but notice only that a few lines further on the top intellectuals say “We count ourselves among the European patriots.”

History of England – A New Future – Extra History – #6

Filed under: Britain, France, History, Military, Religion — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Extra Credits
Published on 29 Jun 2019

The 116-year struggle helped define and unite the English. In France, the wars forced the kings to tackle the separatist forces, and France would become the undisputed arbiter of Europe.

Thanks again to David Crowther for writing AND narrating this series! https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/pod…

Join us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon

A new Blackadder?

Filed under: Britain, Humour, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Colby Cosh retweeted a link to British Comedy Guide:

BBC promotional photo for Blackadder Goes Forth.
Photo via http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/content/images/2007/02/22/trench_1600_1600x1200.jpg

The stars of Blackadder have reportedly agreed to reunite for a new episode or series, after having met up in London to discuss the idea of bringing back the hit sitcom.

The Sun reports Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie agreed on a return, after meeting together at the Soho House members club in London.

A source told the newspaper: “They were all having a great laugh and they are all old friends. So they just said, ‘Yes, let’s do it’. It is being written now. Rowan has been saying he is extremely excited.”

The new series will reportedly be set in the modern day, with Blackadder as a university lecturer.

Speaking in a recent newspaper interview, co-writer Richard Curtis said: “The thing about Blackadder was, it was a young man’s show criticising older people, saying how stupid those in authority were. So I did once think, ‘If we ever did anything again, it should be Blackadder as a teacher in a university, about how much we hate young people’.”

Very Early Mars Pistol #4

Filed under: Britain, History, Technology, Weapons — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 17 Apr 2015

Sold for $46,000.

Until the midle of the 20th century, the most powerful automatic pistol made was Sir Hugh Gabbett-Fairfax’s Mars pistol. With the .45 caliber version approaching the energy of a .45 Winchester Magnum, it was quite the accomplishment for a gun designed initially in 1898! Well, RIA has a very early example of the Mars – serial number 4 – coming up for sale. This gun (chambered for the .360 Mars cartridge) has a number of features that differ from the more “typical” Mars pistols (all 80 or so that were ultimately made). These include a very long barrel, a tangent-style rear sight, and a 3-lug bolt instead of the standard 4-lug type. A very cool pistol to have a look at!

June 30, 2019

Hitler ❤️ Paris – WW2 – 044 – June 29 1940

Filed under: Britain, Europe, France, Germany, History, Italy, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published on 29 Jun 2019

Hitler goes to Paris, while Stalin occupies more territory… but something is on Stalin’s mind. News of the sudden success of the Wehrmacht in the West is not what he had hoped for. Churchill also looks to the West for help while a German invasion of the British Isles seems imminent. Far East the Japanese are on the advance.

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From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago
We have been experimenting with some “catchier” titles in the last couple of weeks. At the moment, YouTube mainly looks at two things when deciding how often to recommend our videos. The first is average watch time. We’re doing great there. The second is called “click through rate”, which means the percentage of recommended videos getting clicked. That puts a huge emphasis on titles and thumbnails. So, we’ve been doing this and it has been quite successful in terms of viewer and subscriber growth. This has caused a great rise of comments as well, and as we still want to read everything and answer most of you, we have asked some community members to help us out. We are using software allowing to review, assign and share comments. This does mean that not all comments are made by someone you know (although Spartacus and Joram are still commenting a lot). We might later decide to have everyone commenting use their own name or a pseudonym, so you know who did the commenting. Just wanted to share that.

Cheers,
Joram

June 29, 2019

Estonia and Latvia Fight For Independence – Russian Civil War Baltic Front I THE GREAT WAR June 1919

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Germany, History, Military, Russia, WW1 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Great War
Published on 28 Jun 2019

GAME OF TRENCHES: The first 20 players to register at: http://bit.ly/GameOfTrenches will receive in-game rewards worth a total of 10 600 Gold

Estonia and Latvia had declared their independence from Russia in the late 1918 chaos. Over the spring of 1919 both countries’ new governments needed to defend that independence not only against the Russian Bolsheviks: there was also a violent internal struggle about the future of these countries. The Baltic Germans didn’t want to give up their social status and the even the anti-Bolshevik Russians considered the Baltics as part of the Russian Empire.

» SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thegreatwar
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» SOURCES
Bennett, Geoffrey Martin. Cowan’s War. The Story of British Naval Operations in the Baltic, 1918-1920 (London: Collins, 1964)

Chester, Geoff. “When the Capital of Latvia was a Ship Called Saratov” (Deep Baltic, 2016). https://deepbaltic.com/2016/06/13/whe…

Fletcher, William A. “The British Navy In the Baltic, 1918-1920. Its Contribution to the Independence of the Baltic Nations”. Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer 1976, p. 134-144.

Gerwarth, Robert. The Vanquished. Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923 (Penguin, 2017).

Hatlie, Mark R. Riga at War 1914-1919. War and Wartime Experience in a Multi-ethnic Metropolis (Marburg: Herder-Institut, 2014). https://digital.herder-institut.de/pu…

Jēkabsons, Ēriks: “Cēsis, Battle of”, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online…

Ibid. “The Latvian War of Independence 1918-1920 and the United States”. In: Fleishman L., Weiner A. (ed). War, Revolution, and Governance: The Baltic Countries in the Twentieth Century (Boston, 2018).

Kirby, David. The Baltic World 1772–1993. Europe’s Northern Periphery in an Age of Change. (London: Longman, 1995).

Raun, Toivo U. Estonia and the Estonians, 2nd ed. (Stanford: Hoover, 2002).

Sammartino, Annemarie H. The Impossible Border: Germany and the East, 1914–1922 (Cornell, 2014).

Sullivan, Charles L. “The 1919 German Campaign in the Baltic. The Final Phase.” In The Baltic States in Peace and War, 1917–1945, ed. V. Stanley Vardys and Romuald J. Misiunas, 31-42. (University Park: Penn State, 1978).

Tammela, Mari-Leen. Saaremaa Uprising. Estonica (Estonian Institute, 2012). http://www.estonica.org/en/Saaremaa_U…

Uustalu, Evald. The History of Estonian People (London: Boreas, 1952).

Von Rauch, Georg. The Baltic States. The Years of Independence 1917-1940 (London: Hurst, 1995).

Smele, Jonathan. The ‘Russian’ Civil Wars, 1916-1926: Ten Years That Shook the World (Oxford University Press: 2016)

Palmer, Alan. Northern Shores: A History of the Baltic Sea and Its Peoples (John Murray, 2005)

»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: Toni Steller
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Motion Design: Christian Graef – GRAEFX
Maps: Daniel Kogosov (https://www.patreon.com/Zalezsky)
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Alexander Clark
Original Logo: David van Stephold

A Mediakraft Networks Original Channel

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2019

June 28, 2019

Lesser-known details of the France 1940 Campaign

Filed under: Britain, France, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The_Chieftain
Premiered on 22 Jun 2019

Your friendly history lesson, with a little bit of Op-Ed thrown in, some parts of the 1940 campaign in France of which many folks weren’t aware.
Why was Guderian relieved of command?
Why might condoms have changed the course of the war?
What’s a Niwi?
Was the French failure one of doctrine, or execution?
You get the idea.

Patreon link here:
https://www.patreon.com/The_Chieftain

World War Two channel, if you haven’t already found it… : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP1A…

What does £1 trillion buy you?

Filed under: Britain, Environment, Government, Media, Politics — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Not much, apparently:

Tory MPs have been told by CCHQ to share this graphic boasting about their new commitment to make the UK carbon-neutral by 2050. No other major country has committed to the pledge although Theresa May is planning a desperate attempt at the G20 to talk other leaders into it. The fact that developed countries going ‘net zero’ simply means they’ll outsource all their emissions to the developing world instead seems to be completely lost on her…

The pledge will cost the UK at least £1 trillion, much of which will be borne by individuals and businesses rather than the exchequer, we don’t know the true cost as May hasn’t even done a proper Treasury analysis. Eco-fanatics love to talk about the burden this generation is placing on children and grandchildren. For a fleeting PR stunt Tory MPs are being told to boast about piling on mountains of economic harm for future generations by a leader who won’t be in office to deal with the consequences…

This is exactly the sort of virtue signalling that Justin Trudeau indulges in … I imagine he’s quite miffed that Theresa May got there first.

June 26, 2019

Summer Stupidity: LONDON (City Review!)

Filed under: Architecture, Britain, Food, History, Humour — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 25 Jun 2019

For more summer fun, we’re heading to London! Let us know what other fun side-content you’d like to see. We’ll see you with more long-form content on Friday!

PATREON: https://www.Patreon.com/OSP

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June 25, 2019

Plan Z, or How Not to Prepare for The Battle of the Atlantic

Filed under: Britain, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Historigraph
Published on 24 Jun 2019

Join us in #WarThunder for free using this link and get a premium tank or aircraft and three days of premium time as a bonus: https://gjn.link/Historigraph/190624

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#WarThunder #PlanZ #Historigraph

Sources:

Jonathan Dimbleby, The Battle of the Atlantic

Jak P. Mallmann Showell, German Navy Handbook 1939-45

Empire of the Deep, Ben Wilson

Philips Payson O’Brien, How the War was Won

Corelli Barnett, Engage the Enemy More Closely

The Encyclopedia of Sea Warfare

Music:
Crypto, Incompetech https://incompetech.com

Stormfront, Incompetech https://incompetech.com

Mark Steyn on Boris Johnson’s very non-traditional lifestyle

Filed under: Britain, Politics — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

With Boris Johnson’s domestic affairs back in the news after a noisy tiff with his current partner, Mark Steyn briefly discusses the less-than-traditional lifestyle of Mr. Johnson:

Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs at an informal meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council on 15 February 2018.
Photo by Velislav Nikolov via Wikimedia Commons.

The rather tired bon mot on Britain’s soi-disant next prime minister is that the only thing that can stop Boris Johnson is Boris Johnson. He was super-disciplined during the last month and managed to stick to his Trappist vows all the way through to the final round of the first stage of voting on Thursday. Then he celebrated his triumph by spilling red wine on his “partner”‘s sofa which led to her allegedly yelling “Get off me!” and then “Get out of my flat!” and him refusing to. “Partner” is New Britspeak for what old-school Tories would have called a “mistress”. Boris was recently kicked out by his second wife, and so moved in with the new bird, who happens to live in Camberwell, which is full of fashionable Labour Party types surrounding him on all sides with glasses held to the walls. And the cellphone has made the citizenry not only able but eager to play volunteer Stasi.

The standard gag on raffish Tories — you wouldn’t trust him with your wife or your wallet — doesn’t begin to do justice to Boris. He genuinely cannot answer the question how many children he has — or how many he’s sired whose mothers were persuaded to ensure junior never made it out of the maternity ward. Like Trump with the pussy-grabbing tape, his supporters are said to have priced all this in — that, if a flawed vessel is the only way to reach the policy destination, so be it. But Boris in a certain sense is taking Trump to the next level — that, as the bounds of acceptable politics have become ever narrower and more constrained, only a certain size of personality can bust through them, and thus in such a world a low moral character is not faute de mieux but vital and necessary — at least if you’re serious about screwing over the EU commissars. If, per America’s founders, a republic presupposes virtue; whatever it is we are now presupposes a lack of it.

Boris was not an early jumper on the Trump train. On political trends, he is something of a latecomer and an opportunist: Nigel Farage truly wants out of the EU; Boris — who knows? In British terms, Trumpesque policy populism lies with Nigel and the Brexit Party. Boris is offering personality populism, and banking that enough voters will figure the policy comes with it.

Mars Automatic Pistols

Filed under: Britain, History, Technology, Weapons — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 1 Mar 2015

Sold for:
$74,750 (.45 cal example)
$40,250 (8.5mm example)

The Mars pistol was designed by Sir Hugh Gabbett-Fairfax in England in 1898, and only 81 were produced by the time manufacturing ended in 1907. These pistols were chambered for several different cartridges, all of them tremendously powerful for the day (and really not equaled by another self-loading pistol until the Automag).

Cool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…

Theme music by Dylan Benson – http://dbproductioncompany.webs.com

I first heard of these pistols in one of L. Neil Smith’s first SF novels, and they sounded so over-the-top that I assumed he’d made them up for the story. This is a fascinating piece of hand artillery that I’d be terrified to have pointed at me (but I’d probably be nearly as terrified to shoot).

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