Quotulatiousness

January 7, 2022

French Ragtag Army’s Desperate Winter Battles 1871

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

Real Time History
Published 6 Jan 2022

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One of the last bastions of French resistance in the new year 1871 is Belfort. A ragtag army called “Army of the East” rushes to free the city near the Swiss border. Meanwhile the Germans prepare to announce their Empire in Versailles.

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» LITERATURE
Arand, Tobias: 1870/71. Der Deutsch-Französische Krieg erzählt in Einzelschicksalen. Hamburg 2018

Buk-Swienty, Tom: Schlachtbank Düppel. 18. April 1864. Die Geschichte einer Schlacht. Berlin 2011

» SOURCES
Klein, Karl: Fröschweiler Chronik. Arand, Tobias/Bunnenberg, Christian (Hrsg.). Hamburg 2021.

Allorant, Salomé u.a. (Hrsg.): La République au défi de la guerre. Lettres et carnet de l’Année terrible (1870-1871). Amiens 2015

Fontane, Theodor: Der Krieg gegen Frankreich. Bd. 4. Berlin 1876

Goncourt, Edmond de: Journal des Goncourts. II.1. 1870-1871. Paris 1890

Meisner, Heinrich Otto (Hrsg.): Kaiser Friedrich III. Das Kriegstagebuch von 1870/71. Berlin, Leipzig 1926

N. N. (Hrsg.): Bismarcks Briefe an seine Gattin aus dem Kriege 1870/71. Stuttgart, Berlin 1903

Pflugk-Harttung, Julius: Krieg und Sieg 1870-71. Berlin 1896

Sheridan, Philip H.: Von Gravelotte nach Paris. Erinnerungen aus dem deutsch-französischem Kriege. Leipzig 1889

Zeitz, Karl: Kriegserinnerungen eines Feldzugsfreiwilligen aus den Jahren 1870 und 1871. Altenburg 1905

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Contains licensed material by getty images
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The Most Important Invention of the 20th Century: Transistors

Filed under: History, Science, Technology, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered
Published 23 Dec 2019

On December 23, 1947, three researchers at Bell labs demonstrated a new device to colleagues. The device, a solid-state replacement for the audion tube, represented the pinnacle of the quest to provide amplification of electronic communication. The History Guy recalls the path that brought us what one engineer describes as “The world’s most important thing.”

This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As images of actual events are sometimes not available, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.

All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.

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QotD: British intelligentsia and imperial decline

Filed under: Britain, History, Quotations — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

… the general weakening of imperialism, and to some extent of the whole British morale, that took place during the nineteen-thirties, was partly the work of the left-wing intelligentsia, itself a kind of growth that had sprouted from the stagnation of the Empire.

It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense “Left”. Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was T.E. Lawrence. Since about 1930 everyone describable as an “intellectual” has lived in a state of chronic discontent with the existing order. Necessarily so, because society as it was constituted had no room for him. In an Empire that was simply stagnant, neither being developed nor falling to pieces, and in an England ruled by people whose chief asset was their stupidity, to be “clever” was to be suspect. If you had the kind of brain that could understand the poems of T.S. Eliot or the theories of Karl Marx, the higher-ups would see to it that you were kept out of any important job. The intellectuals could find a function for themselves only in the literary reviews and the left-wing political parties.

The mentality of the English left-wing intelligentsia can be studied in half a dozen weekly and monthly papers. The immediately striking thing about all these papers is their generally negative, querulous attitude, their complete lack at all times of any constructive suggestion. There is little in them except the irresponsible carping of people who have never been and never expect to be in a position of power. Another marked characteristic is the emotional shallowness of people who live in a world of ideas and have little contact with physical reality. Many intellectuals of the Left were flabbily pacifist up to 1935, shrieked for war against Germany in the years 1935-9, and then promptly cooled off when the war started. It is broadly though not precisely true that the people who were most “anti-Fascist” during the Spanish civil war are most defeatist now. And underlying this is the really important fact about so many of the English intelligentsia – their severance from the common culture of the country.

George Orwell, “The Lion And The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius”, 1941-02-19.

January 6, 2022

Chinese Spymasters – The New Warlords? – WW2 – Spies & Ties 12

Filed under: Britain, China, History, Japan, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 5 Jan 2022

During World War Two, China was ripped up by many different warring parties, all of which were also playing spy games with crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses.
(more…)

The 1874 Gras: France Enters the Brass Cartridge Era

Filed under: France, History, Military, Weapons — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 6 May 2019

After the disaster of the Franco-Prussian War, it was clear to the French military that the rationale for using paper cartridge in the Chassepot was no longer valid — a future rifle would need to use brass cartridges. A competition to design a conversion of the Chassepot to use modern ammunition resulted in the 1874 adoption of the rifle designed by French Artillery Captain Basile Gras. This maintained the use of the bolt handle as a single locking lug, but introduced a separate bolt head and extractor. The new cartridge was the 11mm Gras; very similar to the Chassepot loading but at a slightly higher velocity.

The Gras would be produced from 1874 until 1884, with more than 4 million made in total. Most were full length infantry rifles, but two patterns of carbine and a musketoon were also included for cavalry, gendarmerie, and artillery troops. These rifles saw significant use in colonial conflicts, but the much-anticipated war of revenge against Germany would not happen while the Gras was the standard French rifle. Instead, it would see a supporting role in the First World War, both in the original 11mm caliber and also converted to 8mm Lebel.

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QotD: The centre cannot hold … because there’s barely any “centre” remaining

Filed under: Economics, History, Media, Politics, Quotations, USA — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

… check out Kevin Drum’s analysis of asymmetric polarization these past few decades. He shows relentlessly that over the past few decades, it’s Democrats who have veered most decisively to the extremes on policy on cultural issues since the 1990s. Not Republicans. Democrats.

On immigration, Republicans have moved around five points to the right; the Democrats 35 points to the left. On abortion, Republicans who advocate a total ban have increased their numbers a couple of points since 1994; Democrats who favor legality in every instance has risen 20 points. On guns, the GOP has moved ten points right; Dems 20 points left.

It is also no accident that, as Drum notes and as David Shor has shown: “white academic theories of racism — and probably the whole woke movement in general — have turned off many moderate Black and Hispanic voters.” This is why even a huge economic boom may not be enough to keep the Democrats in power next year.

We are going through the greatest radicalization of the elites since the 1960s. This isn’t coming from the ground up. It’s being imposed ruthlessly from above, marshaled with a fusillade of constant MSM propaganda, and its victims are often the poor and the black and the brown.

Andrew Sullivan, “What Happened To You?”, The Weekly Dish, 2021-07-09.

January 5, 2022

History Summarized: The Ottoman Empire

Filed under: Europe, History, Humour, Middle East, Military, Religion — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 5 Oct 2018

Leave it to the furniture boys to pioneer a Comfort-First attitude towards Imperialism.

Join Blue in investigating the history of the Ottoman empire, and find out why “The Sick Man of Europe” is more than their nickname implies.

Further reading: Osman’s Dream by Caroline Finkel

Famous Turkish Song — Gunduz Gece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UcbH…

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Spartan BLACK BROTH | Melas Zomos

Filed under: Europe, Food, Greece, History — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 6 Oct 2020

If you’ve ever wanted to be a Spartan warrior, then making a bowl of Melas Zomos is just a part of the process. Today, I cover each step in making both Melas Zomos and in making a Spartan warrior.

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KitchenAid Blender: https://amzn.to/2RBkWi4

LINKS TO SOURCES**
The Spartans by Paul Cartledge: https://amzn.to/35Jd2vo
Plutarch On Sparta: https://amzn.to/2H6SBhy
The Deipnosophistai by Athenaeus: https://amzn.to/3my5v8D
The Histories by Herodotus: https://amzn.to/32NdcQF
A Companion to Sparta by Anton Powell: https://amzn.to/3c94PSq
The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet by Marek Wecowski: https://amzn.to/2RFD5LK
Sparta Reconsidered by Helena P. Schrader: https://bit.ly/32FQOIM

**Amazon offers a small commission on products sold through their affiliate links, so each purchase made from this link, whether this product or another, will help to support this channel with no additional cost to you.

MELAS ZOMOS
INGREDIENTS
– 2lb (1kg) Pig Leg (or other pork product)
– 2 Cups (1/2 liter) Pig Blood
– 1 Cup (235ml) White Wine Vinegar
– 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
– 1 Tsp Salt
– 4 Cups (1 Litre) Water
– 3 Bay Leaf
– 1 Large Chopped Onion

METHOD
1. Set a large stock pot over medium heat, then add the olive oil and onions and cook until tender and lightly brown, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the chopped pork to the pot book for another 10 minutes.
3. Pour in the vinegar and 3-4 cups of water (4 if you have fresh pig’s blood, 3 if you have coagulated blood), the salt and the bay leaves. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium low and let the soup simmer, covered, for 45 minutes to and hour or until the pork is cooked through.
4. Add the pork blood* and simmer for 15 minutes more, then serve.
*If you are using coagulated pork blood, mix it with the final cup of water in a blender and blend until most of it is liquid. Strain out any large chunks and add the liquid to the soup.

PHOTO CREDITS
Symposium Scene: Marie-Lan Nguyen / https://bit.ly/3muYyoI
Schwarzsauer: Overbergderivative work / https://bit.ly/2ZJxBUq
Dinuguan with puto: Lambanog / https://bit.ly/3mrLyAg
Odaker: https://bit.ly/2ZKFRUi
Plutarch Bust: Odyssey / https://bit.ly/2FAYO54
Roman mosaic from Dougga: Pascal Radigue / https://bit.ly/2E6Wu4Y
Greek Vase with Child: National Archaeological Museum of Athens / https://bit.ly/2H04tlo
Sarcophagus Marcus Cornelius Statius: Louvre Museum / https://bit.ly/2ZK3bla
Dionysus with Hermes on Jug: MatthiasKabel – https://bit.ly/2FECCqL
Mt Taygetus: Gepsimos – https://bit.ly/32A4SU8
Eurotas River: Gepsimos / https://bit.ly/2Fv4AVY
Xerxes: Darafsh / https://bit.ly/2H0lWds

QotD: Measurement hack that lives on

Filed under: Education, History, Humour, Quotations, USA — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

The geeks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are fond of merry japes, locally known as “hacks”. One of the more memorable happened one night in October 1958 when an MIT fraternity had the idea of initiating new members by making them measure a bridge over the Charles River connecting the Cambridge campus with Boston. Crossing the bridge was often a wet, windy and unpleasant business and it was thought that students returning at night from downtown would like to know, by visible marks and with some precision, how far they still had to go. The older fraternity brothers decided to use one of the new pledges as a rule, and selected Oliver R. Smoot, the shortest of the lot at 5ft 7in. The other pledges laid Smoot out at one end of the bridge, marked his extent with chalk and paint, then picked him up and laid him down again, spelling out the full measurement every ten lengths, and inscribing the mid-point of the bridge with the words “halfway to Hell”. In this way, it was determined that the span was 364.4 smoots long, “plus or minus one ear” (to indicate measurement uncertainty).

The hack was too good to let fade away, so every now and then the fraternity makes its pledges repaint the markings. You might think this isn’t the sort of vandalism the police would tolerate, but they do. The smoot markings soon became convenient in recording the exact location of traffic accidents, so (as the story goes) when the bridge walkways needed to be repaved in 1987, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works directed the construction company to lay out the concrete slabs on the walkway not in the customary six-foot lengths but in shorter smoot units. Fifty years after the original hack, the smoot markers have become part of civic tradition: the City of Cambridge declared 4 October 2008 “Smoot Day”. MIT students ran up a commemorative plaque on a precision milling machine and created an aluminium Smoot Stick which they deposited in the university’s museum as a durable reference standard: the unit-smoot is now detached from the person-Smoot. Through the legions of MIT graduates driving global high-tech culture, the smoot has travelled the world. If you use Google Earth, you can elect the units of length in which you’d like distances measured: miles, kilometres, yards, feet – and smoots.

Robert Crease, The Historic Quest for an Absolute System of Measurement, 2011.

January 4, 2022

Peninsular War: Why were British infantry so successful?

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

Redcoat: British military history
Published 16 Dec 2021

Why were the British redcoats so successful in the Peninsular war? There were many reasons, but amongst them was the way regiments were organised and the tactics they employed.

If you are interested in the Zulu War, then please sign up for my mailing list to receive my free book on the subject: www.redcoathistory.com

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Ayn Rand: The Virtue of Selfishness

Filed under: Books, History, Liberty, Media, Russia, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Biographics
Published 21 Jan 2021

Pretty excited for our first weird comment section of 2021.

Simon’s Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimonWhistler
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonwhistler/

Source/Further reading:

Britannica biography: https://www.britannica.com/biography/…

Biography: https://www.biography.com/writer/ayn-…

American National Biography: https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/…

Biography via the Ayn Rand Institute: http://aynrandlexicon.com/about-ayn-r…

Claremont Review of Books, two biographies of Ayn Rand: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/wh…

NY Mag: https://nymag.com/arts/books/features…

Slate, the liberal view, but some good details on her childhood: https://slate.com/culture/2009/11/two…

Rand and religion: https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-you-…

Rand and social security: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ayn…

Sex in The Fountainhead: https://medium.com/curious/discussing…

February Revolution in Russia: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-w…

October Revolution in Russia: https://www.history.com/topics/russia…

January 3, 2022

How did the Greeks and Romans count Years?

Filed under: Europe, Greece, History, Middle East — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

toldinstone
Published 31 Dec 2021

The AD/CE system we use to date the year was introduced — more or less by accident — during the Middle Ages. Before its invention, the classical world used a wide range of dating systems.

Please consider supporting this channel on Patreon:
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:51 Ancient Greek Calendars
1:42 Counting by Olympiads
2:22 The Seleucid Era
2:56 Consular Dating
3:26 Ab Urbe Condita
4:28 Indictions
4:56 Christian Chronology
5:40 Anno Domini
7:00 Conclusion

Testing Gyrojet ROCKET GUNS – Why were they a commercial failure?

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

TAOFLEDERMAUS
Published 10 Jun 2018

We were able to make the impossible happen: test out two rare Gyrojet rocket guns. Remarkably, instead of just taking one or two shots, we were able to take 4 shots. We were able to learn a lot with these limited test still.

Check out Sean’s Youtube channel:
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January 2, 2022

And Now It’s 1943 … – WW2 – 175 – January 1st, 1943

Filed under: Britain, Germany, History, Japan, Military, Pacific, Russia, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 1 Jan 2023

The attrition cannot continue so the Japanese decide they will evacuate Guadalcanal, conceding the Solomon Islands to the Allies. The Allies are also conceding the Caucasus, and a naval battle in the far north convinces Hitler that he should scrap the entire German surface fleet. 1943 begins ominously for the Axis.
(more…)

In 1978, E.O. Wilson was “the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea”

Filed under: History, Politics, Science — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

In the current year, I suspect many, many scientists have been physically attacked for advocating unpopular ideas. In Quillette, Alice Dreger publishes an interview she had with Wilson in 2009:

Edward O. Wilson in February 2003.
PLoS image by Jim Harrison via Wikimedia Commons.

Alice Dreger: I know you’ve spoken about it many times before, but I would like to begin by asking you about the session at the 1978 AAAS [American Association for the Advancement of Science] conference during which you were rushed on the stage and a protester emptied a pitcher of water onto your head. By all accounts, the talk you then gave was very measured. How on Earth were you able to remain so calm after being physically assaulted?

Edward O. Wilson: I think I may have been the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea. The idea of a biological human nature was abhorrent to the demonstrators and was, in fact, too radical at the time for a lot of people — probably most social scientists and certainly many on the far-Left. They just accepted as dogma the blank-slate view of the human mind — that everything we do and think is due to contingency, rather than based upon instinct like bodily functions and the urge to keep reproducing. These people believe that everything we do is the result of historical accidents, the events of history, the development of personality through experience.

That was firmly believed in 1978 by a wide part of the population, but particularly by the political Left. And it was thought at the time that raising the specter of a biological basis for human behavior was not only wrong, but a justification for war, sexism, and racism. Biological gender differences could justify sexism, and any imputation that we evolved a human nature, or that human qualities might differ from one race to another, was dangerously racist.

So, furious ideologically based opposition had built up in 1978. That opposition had been fanned by a small number of academics including [paleontologist] Stephen Jay Gould and [evolutionary biologist] Richard Lewontin and two or three others on the Harvard faculty who thought this was a very dangerous idea and said so. These people helped organize the so-called “Science for the People” movement, or the branch of it called the “Sociobiology Study Group”. Their purpose was to discredit me personally for having brought up such a dangerous and destructive idea.

In fact, at that meeting, InCAR — the International Committee Against Racism — held up signs condemning me and sociobiology and racism in general. Of course, racism never even entered my thinking in developing these ideas. Anyway, after they dumped the water on me, amazingly, they returned to their seats while I was drying myself off. A couple of people then made short speeches — most notably Stephen Gould, of all people, the guy whose agitation and inflammatory essays had been partly responsible for all this. He addressed the demonstrators and said, in effect, that while he fully understood their motivation, violence was not the right way to achieve their goals.

As for me, I don’t know why, but I just get calm under a lot of stress. I’ve been in that sort of stressful situation many times, especially in the field. I started thinking to myself, this is probably going to be an historical moment, and it is very interesting. I wasn’t in the least doubt that my science was correct. I knew this was a kind of aberration. I understood the source because I knew the people who had been the chief thinkers, the ideological leaders. An astonishingly good percentage of them were on the faculty at Harvard. I wasn’t concerned this would come to anything in the long term.

So, someone found a paper towel and I dried my head. As soon as things settled down, I just read my talk. I knew things were going to work out — there was so much evidence accumulated already for a somewhat programmed human brain. By then, it was already coming from many directions, including genetics and neuroscience. There was no doubt about where things would go. There may be hold-outs but the inevitable conclusion from neuroscience and anthropology and genetics is for this way of thinking. [American anthropologist] Nap[oleon] Chagnon was present and he was certainly a leader in thinking about human nature and how valuable it is, and what its motivations are, by studying groups like the Yanomamö.

I knew history was on my side. I was young enough that I thought I would live through a good part of it. I was annoyed! But I wasn’t under stress in an extreme way. Before going home, I went to the next session, at which an anthropologist made the mistake of stating that I believe every cultural difference has a genetic basis, so that I am a racist. Of course, I rebutted that, but that was the kind of thing being exchanged at that meeting.

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