IT’S HISTORY
Published on 28 Sep 2015With Sexual Enlightenment came radical changes to the perception of sex in society. This episode on sex in modernity covers discussions held in salon culture, debating and defining ideas of what sexual liberty meant. Public figures like Anne Lister openly addressed homosexual relations and the first sex researchers took up on the topic.
January 28, 2018
Sexual Enlightenment – Defining what is Normal l HISTORY OF SEX
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January 27, 2018
Day 12 Cuban Missile Crisis – Black Saturday, nuclear war on autopilot…
TimeGhost
Published on 7 Dec 2017On October 27, 1962 a deal to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis is ever so close, but then almost everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Political confusion between the leaders, lost and shot down airplanes, errant nuclear armed submarines and exhaustion takes its toll. For those immediately involved it will go down in memory as the Black Saturday.
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January 26, 2018
Civil War in Finland and the Ukraine I THE GREAT WAR Week 183
The Great War
Published on 25 Jan 2018This week in the Great War, two more wars start – the Finnish Civil War and the Ukrainian War of Independence. Meanwhile, David Lloyd George pulls some strings in France, even as Ludendorff settles on a target for Germany’s upcoming Spring Offensive.
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Day 11 Cuban Missile Crisis – Will President Kennedy invade Cuba after all?
TimeGhost
Published on 30 Nov 2017On 26 October 1962, USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev is preparing to offer the US an olive branch. Meanwhile US President John F Kennedy continue to plan an invasion of Cuba. While the politicians make new plans, their previous military plans take on a life of their own
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Tank Chats #21 Mark V
Tank Museum
Published on 27 May 2016Although similar in appearance to earlier models the Mark V was a much better tank, more powerful and easier to drive.
It was equipped with a new engine and steering system which meant that one man could handle all the controls, compared with four in the Mark IV.
Commanded by a young officer named Whittenbury the Museum’s Mark V tank, seen in this video, took part in the Battle of Amiens and its young commander was awarded the Military Cross.
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QotD: Britain’s boozy parliamentarians
It is Wright’s contention [in his book Order! Order!] that alcohol has as many benefits as it does drawbacks. Not only does it help loosen ties and tongues it also boosts confidence and dilutes stress. Most prime ministers drank, many to excess. Herbert Asquith went by the nickname “Squiffy Asquith” and regularly appeared in the Commons three sheets to the wind. Margaret Thatcher did her best to promote the whisky industry, the uncapping of a bottle of Bell’s marking the end of the working day. She believed that whisky rather than gin was good for you because “it will give you energy”, which I fear could be a hard fact to prove scientifically.
Tony Blair, whose reign ushered in an era of 24-hour drinking, thought his relatively modest drinking was getting out of control because he calculated it exceeded the government’s weekly recommended limit. This did not impress Dr John Reid, Bellshill’s finest, who once drank like a navvy. “Where I come from,” Reid told GMTV, “a gin and tonic, two glasses of wine, you wouldn’t give that to a budgie.” Blair, of course, did not have to look further than next door to find an explanation why his consumption increased over the years. Gordon Brown, his nemesis, was fond of Champagne – Möet & Chandon no less – which he did not nurse but washed down in a gulp. “He was like the cookie monster,” recalled one aide. “Down in one, whoosh!” Drinking is of course one of those areas in which we Scots have long punched above our weight and Wright’s pages are replete with examples of intoxicated Jocks carousing nights away and causing mayhem. Former Labour leader John Smith was one such. Occasionally I encountered him on the overnight train that carried Scottish MPs home from Westminster on a Thursday night. Known as “the sleeper of death”, it was a mobile pub that never closed until it reached Waverley, whereupon politicians were disgorged red-eyed and pie-eyed among bemused early morning commuters.
Alan Taylor, “Lush tales of our political classes’ drinking exploits”, The National, 2016-06-20.
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January 25, 2018
Day 10 Cuban Missile Crisis – Showdown at the U.N. Corral
TimeGhost
Published on 27 Nov 2017On October 25, 1962 while the US Navy are looking for something to do in the Caribbean, both USSR Chairman Khrushchev and US President Kennedy are questioning the success of their actions. Meanwhile US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson is about to face off with USSR Ambassador to the UN, Valerian Zorin in a historic showdown at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
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Looking deeper than just England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
H/T to @GarethSoye for posting this one (originally from Brilliant Maps):
[Click to see full-sized image]
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January 24, 2018
Day 9 Cuban Missile Crisis – Blockade starts and low altitude flybys over Cuba
TimeGhost
Published on 23 Nov 2017On October 24, 1962 the US led blockade on Cuba goes into effect, but it’s not the be the showdown that it looks like! In the same time the US Navy starts flying RF8 Crusader reconnaissance jets 400 feet over the missile sites on Cuba, to see what’s really going on. As the jets roar over the heads of the Cuban and Soviet soldiers, the crisis deepens.
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Peter Jackson to bring modern digital technology to bear on IWM film footage of the Great War
Elizabeth sent me a link to this Daily Mail article on Peter Jackson’s new project:
When you think of First World War footage, chances are you conjure up grainy images of soldiers and jumpy footage of the trenches.
But a new 3D film by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is set to bring the conflict to life in a way never seen before.
The Oscar-winner has restored and colourised 100-year-old footage from the Imperial War Museum’s vast archive, and early photos suggest the results will be remarkable.
One comparison shot shows the dramatic transformation from poor quality black-and-white scenes to clear colour images, while another shows the radically sharpened faces of our troops.
Jackson said he hoped the film, which will premiere at the BFI London Film Festival before airing on BBC1 later this year, will help audiences better connect ‘with the events on screen’.
Explaining the painstaking process of restoring the footage, he said: ‘We started to do some experiments and I was honestly stunned by the results we were getting. We all know what First World War footage looks like.
‘It’s sped up, it’s fast, like Charlie Chaplin, grainy, jumpy, scratchy, and it immediately blocks you from actually connecting with the events on screen.
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January 23, 2018
British Pistols of World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special feat. C&Rsenal
The Great War
Published on 22 Jan 2018Check out Othais’ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/candrsenal
Othais introduces the standard British pistols and revolvers to Indy, including the iconic Webley series.
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Day 8 Cuban Missile Crisis – Kennedy and Khrushchev face reality
TimeGhost
Published on 20 Nov 2017On October 23, 1962 as the blockade on Cuba is being prepared, US President John F. Kennedy and USSR Chairman Nikita Khrushchev question their own actions realising that they might have gone a step too far. By now the dice have been rolled and it’s too late to stop the wheels from spinning. Both leaders try to justify their decisions to maintain their political power.
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Top Gear – lost in translation
Jean Girard
Published on 26 Feb 2009James May and Jeremy Clarkson discover the perils of a literal translation.
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January 22, 2018
Day 7 Cuban Missile Crisis – USA announces a blockade on Cuba
TimeGhost
Published on 16 Nov 2017On October 22, 1962 the world is shocked to find out that the US and the USSR are facing off with nuclear arms in the Caribbean. In the world’s first televised announcement of an international military crisis, US President John F. Kennedy sets off panic and sudden fear of a third world war, with nuclear arms involved.
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