Quotulatiousness

January 24, 2019

The Sinking of HMS Glorious: An Avoidable Tragedy?

Filed under: Britain, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Historigraph
Published on 27 Aug 2018

The Sinking of HMS Glorious, on June 8 1940, was one of the worst British naval disasters of the Second World War. Over 1500 losing their lives as two German battleships sunk three British ships. In this video, we will recount the events and the heroism of Glorious’ two escorts (HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta), before looking at the post-war controversy over whether the disaster was ‘covered up’ by the Admiralty.

If you enjoyed this video and want to see more made, consider supporting my efforts on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/historigraph

► Twitter: https://twitter.com/historigraph
►Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/historigraph
►Discord: https://discord.gg/f8JZw93
►My Gaming Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Addaway

Sources:

John Winton, Carrier Glorious (Cassell: 1986)

Stephen Roskill, Churchill and the Admirals (Pen and Sword, 1977)

Corelli Barnett, Engage The Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War (Penguin, 1991)

Henrik Lunde, Hitler’s Preemptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940. (kindle edition)

Earl Ziemke, German Northern Theater of Operations 1940-1945. (kindle edition)

Record of the Hansard Debate from 1999: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-ha…

Full Casualty List for HMS Glorious can be found here: http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas19…

From the comments:

1. Unlike the Battle of the River Plate from my last video, we do not know the precise movements of the ships, particularly the British ones, during the battle. The movements in this video should thus be taken as purely illustrative.

2. As you might be able to tell there is still a pretty intense debate over the reasons for Glorious’ sinking, particularly over what knowledge the officers on board Devonshire had or didn’t have about Glorious’ trouble. In particular there is testimony from one midshipman that the ship’s captain and Admiral Cunningham (who was on board) knew what was happening and took no action. It is only his word, so many of the historians I have read do not seem to have bought much into it, but it appears in this documentary from 1997: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yAahSUiXt4

January 23, 2019

A new beginning for the Middle East: The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia

Filed under: History, Middle East, Religion — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The British Museum
Published on 18 Jul 2014

The Cyrus Cylinder is one of the most famous objects to have survived from the ancient world. It was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform on the orders of Persian King Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC) after he captured Babylon in 539 BC.

The cylinder is often referred to as the first bill of human rights as it appears to encourage freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands. It was found in Babylon in modern Iraq in 1879 during a British Museum excavation.

January 22, 2019

“I grew up in pre-history, or rather in Portugal (in some ways, same thing) in the 60s”

Filed under: Education, Europe, History, Liberty — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Sarah Hoyt on “toxic masculinity” and the rise of angry feminism:

… it’s such a just-so story it spreads and hides. It hides so well that people don’t realize they’re infected. But its distorting effects twist society’s processes to the point that something vital stops working.

Yes, the entire myth of “toxic masculinity” is one of these. It was born of the disappointment of feminists. Look, in the days when women were actually held back, those that made it were exceptional people.

Since I grew up in pre-history, or rather in Portugal (in some ways, same thing) in the 60s, where sexism was matter of fact and every day, I can tell you that, yes, to have the same grades as a boy you needed to work twice as hard, be brighter, more nimble, and more consistently good. Any boy started out with a good 20% on me in any teacher’s head, because “boys are smarter” wasn’t disputed, or even questioned.

So I understand that in the early twentieth century, women that made it to positions of prominence, where they became known for professional excellence, had to be GOOD at it. Amazing, in fact.

And even then, they might hit a glass ceiling, because they were the nail that stuck up. Everything conspired to bring them down.

Female liberation was played against this. People looked at these women, knew what they’d achieved against what obstacles, and dreamed that “if only women were allowed to be on an even footing with men, they’d be the best at everything. Every woman would be a leader.”

This is a form of insanity, because women are still human, and most humans are … average. That’s why they call it “average.”

But you can see how what they saw would deceive them.

Except that the obstacles were removed and women … were people. Sure. There are exceptional women, just as there are exceptional men, but in many ways, even with contraceptives, we women are still running with our legs in a biological sack. Oh, men too. They’re just different sacks. And men’s impairments, in a way, apply better to business, to creating, to competition.

Look, it’s become “sexist” to refer to PMS and women’s hormonal cycle as being at all different than men’s hormonal gearing up. Yeah. Any ideology that requires me to ignore my lying eyes in favor of their theory is bad-crazy which can destroy society, so these are my middle fingers. Reality is what it is.

Ending India’s longstanding caste system privileges

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

In the Continental Telegraph, Tim Worstall outlines the political change that might end up undermining the caste system to a large degree:

India as seen by a cool Bangalorean

India has long had a series of reservations and quotas for varied classes. Dalits – formerly the untouchables – have long had privileges in access to university and government jobs for example. Over time, as such political systems do, the list of those classes privileged has grown.

Obviously enough, as such political systems do work, a major cause of unrest has been further classes, castes and groupings demanding that they be added to the list of groups that receive such privileges. And given electoral cycles that list has grown. The cynic will not be surprised to find that the surest method of a group being added to the list is to be the swing vote in a hotly contested election. We’re not talking about purity of motive here.

Of course, such a system eats away at the nation – we get into that communal division of the spoils rather than the lovely capitalist and free market game of increasing the spoils to be argued over. Which leaves us with a certain problem, leaves India with a certain problem.

[…]

If everyone’s covered by a reservation, if all are so privileged, then sure, we’ve an inefficient system still but we have also effectively abolished the value of having a reservation, a privilege. Thus the solution, the end game. So devalue the privilege as to make it effectively not exist by extending it to everyone.

QotD: From Athenian democracy to the Magna Carta

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

It is always tempting to look for our roots in ancient Athens … tempting, but wrong. The ancient Athenian “democracy” in the agora was, to be charitable, just mob rule, and the mob was incited, most often bought and paid for, by a series of loud mouthed bullies and celebrities ~ so, I can hear some of you saying, not much different from Canada and the USA in the 21st century, right? Now and again, Thucydides, for example, the loud mouth bully also had some brains and good ideas, but, more often than not they were just unqualified pretty boys and clowns.

The Romans gave us something a wee, tiny bit better: rule by law. But the Romans are, rightfully, often best remembered as engineers and they “engineered”, rigged, their political system to ensure that while there were, indeed, laws, to protect and serve the interests of the common people, the plebeians, the system ensured that no law could stand if it ever threatened the privileges of the patricians ~ Rome’s equivalent of our Laurentian elites.

The first time we find something that I think we can properly claim as a “root” of our, modern, liberal democracy is in Anglo Saxon England where, somewhat haphazardly to be sure, a council, called the Witan, advised and constrained and sometimes even elected the monarch for about 400 years, until the Norman conquest. The Witan (members of the Witenaġemot ~ the “meeting of wise men”) were the first privy council, the prototype of modern, Australian, British and Canadian cabinet government.

Next, in Norman times, came Magna Carta, echoes of which can still be heard in our great common law. Magna Carta itself was not as important as two men who, in their turn, gave it life. King John had no difficulty in persuading the Pope to disallow Magna Carta but the British barons actually went into open revolt and, first, William Marshal, acting as Earl Marshal of England and regent for the boy King Henry III, traded Magna Carta for an independent exchequer, and then Simon de Montfort, acting for the barons against the grown King Henry III, forced Magna Carta and parliamentary supremacy on to England.

Ted Campbell, “Our Conservative Roots”, Ted Campbell’s Point of View, 2017-03-05.

January 21, 2019

Sun Yat-sen – A Bombing in Wuchang – Extra History – #4

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

Extra Credits
Published on 19 Jan 2019

Another group of revolutionaries in China, the Wuchang Uprising, accidentally kicked off their own plans earlier than expected, which lead to Sun starting an international diplomatic mission and then being appointed the head of the new republic. But Yuan Shikai, the current Prime Minister, had plans of his own…

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

M551 “Sheridan” AR/AAV | DESIGN DISASTER!

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

Matsimus
Published on 24 Dec 2018

The M551 Sheridan was a light reconnaissance tank developed by the American company General Motors in May 1960 under the designation XM551. In November 1965 approval was given for the type classification of the XM551 as Limited Production and a four-year production contract was awarded to the Allison Motor Car Division of General Motors Corporation. In May 1966 the Sheridan was classified as Standard A and by this time production was well under way with the first production vehicle being completed in June 1966. Production continued until 1970 by when 1700 M551S (or General Sheridans) had been built, of which 1570 were still in service with the US Army in 1970. The role of the M551. as originally conceived, is to function as the main reconnaissance vehicle for armour, infantry and airborne operations and arms teams not employing main battle tanks. Late in 1978, it was announced that the M551 would be phased out of service and replaced by the M60A1 MBT, apart from those vehicles allocated to the 82nd Airborne Division (57) and Arkansas National Guard (12), 330 have been assigned to the National training Center at Fort Irwin, California. These are essentially basic M551s but with visual modifications to the outside to disguise them as “OPFOR force” vehicles such as BMP-1 and ZSU-23-4.

Hope you enjoy!!

💰 Want to support my channel? Check out my Patreon Donation page! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3081754
My PO Box: Matthew James 210A – 12A Street N Suite #135 Lethbridge Alberta Canada T1H2J
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/B7cbXgy
🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatsimusGaming

(DISCLAIMER: This video is for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinion come from personal experience or information from public accessible sources.)

January 20, 2019

Swedes not Sweden to Finland’s Rescue – WW2 – 021 – January 19 1940

Filed under: Europe, History, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published on 19 Jan 2019

As the Winter War rolls on the only help the Finns are getting are from volunteers. The Western Allies still have their thoughts on Norway, little do they know that the Phony​ War almost ends this week…

Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…

Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations by: Eastory
Community Manager: Joram Appel

Colorizations by Spartacus Olsson and Norman Stewart.

Photos of the Winter War are mostly from the Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive (SA-Kuva).

Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH

Thumbnail depicts First Sergeant John Horseholm and Åke Ek of the Swedish Volunteer Battalion in 1944
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenosco…
Colorised by Jared Enos https://www.flickr.com/people/jenosco…

January 19, 2019

Stopper 37mm: A Simple South African Riot Control Gun

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

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 29 Dec 2018

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

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

The Stopper is a simple 37mm single shot riot control gun designed by Andries Piek in 1980. The South African police services were at that time using 37mm guns made by Federal Labs in the US, dating back to the 1930s, and the international embargo on South Africa made it impossible to get parts and do basic maintenance on those arms. So Piek (whose other work included the BXP carbine/SMG and design improvements to the LDP/Kommando) whipped out the Stopper in all of two weeks to provide a new domestic-production 37mm weapon for the police.

The Stopper is a simple break-action gun, with a manually cocked, single action, hammer-fired trigger mechanism. Two versions were made, one with the front grip and one without, and all were fitted with collapsing stocks. Production began in 1982 and ran until 1999, by Mitco Special Products under the Milkor name.

As an interesting postscript, Piek was inspired by seeing Christopher Walken using a Mannville 25mm revolving gas gun in the movie Dogs of War to make something similar in 37mm or 40mm. The gun he designed to this end became the Milkor MGL, adopted by South Africa in 1983 and by the US Marine Corps in 2005.

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
Tucson, AZ 85754

January 18, 2019

Rise of Fascism and Mussolini’s March on Rome I Between 2 Wars I 1922 Part 1 of 2

Filed under: Europe, History, Italy — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

TimeGhost History
Published on 17 Jan 2019

In 1922, when Italy is in political chaos, reeling from the effects of The Great War and labour unrest, one man makes a violent grab for power. He is the prominent journalist and leader of a new radical, reactionary, oppressive, and murderous movement. He is Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini and he calls his movement Fascism.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Directed by: Spartacus Olsson
Written by: Spartacus Olsson and Rune Væver Hartvig
Produced by: Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Edited by Wieke Kapteijns
Community Manager: Joram Appel

Thumbnail depicts Benito Mussolini in 1919 colorised by Olga Shirnina aka Klimbim.

Colorized Pictures by Olga Shirnina and Norman Stewart

Olga’s pictures: https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com
Norman’s pictures https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/

Video Archive by Screenocean/Reuters http://www.screenocean.com

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH

Xenophon’s Anabasis, Memorabilia, and Symposium

Filed under: Greece, History, Middle East — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

I’ve read an English translation of Xenophon’s Anabasis, but I only know a little bit about the Memorabilia, so Eve Browning‘s essay at Aeon was quite interesting:

The Anabasis is the first military memoir in the history of Western literature, and it recounts Xenophon’s experiences in the Persian campaign of Cyrus against his brother King Artaxerxes, and the long march ‘up country’. Since Xenophon waited several decades to commit these memories to writing, some have argued that they cannot be accurate. But as anyone who has listened to combat veterans will know, there’s a lot about the remembrance of past tours of duty that time cannot soften nor the years wear away.

Xenophon also wrote histories, portraits of leaders, practical treatises on horse training, hunting and running a household, among other things. An enduring theme that runs through much of his writing, and which has received scholarly attention in recent years, is that of leadership. What makes a good leader? What kind of leader can induce humans to endure hardships and expend effort toward a common goal? What exemplary traits mark out a leader and allow him or her to execute the requisite tasks with skill, induce a harmonious fellowship among those for whom he is responsible, maintain loyalty and mission clarity among the ‘troops’, whomever they might be? It is not difficult to see the formative roots of these questions, and of Xenophon’s answers to them, in that literally death-defying, embattled 2,000-mile march up-country to the sea.

Xenophon also wrote down his remembrances of a local philosopher named Socrates. Those who know Socrates mainly through the writings of Plato – Xenophon’s near-exact contemporary – will find Xenophon’s Socrates something of a surprise. Plato’s Socrates claims to know nothing, and flamboyantly refutes the knowledge claims of others. In the pages of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, however, Socrates actually answers philosophical questions, dispenses practical life advice, provides arguments proving the existence of benevolent gods, converses as if peer-to-peer with a courtesan, and even proposes a domestic economy scheme whereby indigent female relatives can become productive through the establishment of a textile business at home.

Socrates’ conversation, according to Xenophon, ‘was ever of human things’. This engaged, intensely practical, human Socrates can be refreshing to encounter. Anyone who has felt discomfort at how the opponents of Plato’s Socrates suffer relentless public refutations and reductions to absurdity can take some comfort in Xenophon’s Socrates who ‘tries to cure the perplexities of his friends’.

For instance, what could be more enchanting than a Socrates who solo-dances for joy and exercise, so unlike the Socrates we know from Plato? In Xenophon’s Symposium, Socrates asks the Phoenician dance-master to show him some dance moves. Everyone laughs: what will you do with dance moves, Socrates? He replies: ‘I’ll dance, by God!’ A friend of Socrates then tells the group that he had stopped by his house early in the morning, and found him dancing alone. When questioned about it, Socrates happily confesses to solo-dancing often. It’s great exercise, it moves the body in symmetry, it can be done indoors or outdoors with no equipment, and it freshens the appetite.

Another surprising side of Xenophon’s Socrates is shown through his encounter with a person who not only doesn’t honour the gods, but makes fun of people who do. To this irreligious person, Socrates presents a careful and persuasive line of reasoning about the designed usefulness of all elements of creation. For humans and many other animals, there are ‘eyes so that they can see what can be seen, and ears so that they can hear what can be heard’, eyelids, eyelashes, molars and incisors, erotic desire to aid procreation; all these are ‘the contrivance of some wise craftsman who loves animals’. And what about the cosmos as a whole? ‘Are you, then, of the opinion that … those surpassingly large and infinitely numerous things are in such an orderly condition through some senselessness?’ Human beings even have the spiritual capacity to perceive the existence of gods, ‘who put in order the greatest and noblest things’, and ‘they worry about you!’

H/T to Never Yet Melted for the link.

Tank Chats #41 Sherman Firefly | The Tank Museum

Filed under: Britain, History, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: — Nicholas @ 02:00

The Tank Museum
Published on 28 Jul 2017

A Tank Chat from David Fletcher on an inspired British modification. As an all-round, general purpose tank the Sherman was one of the best of World War II, but by 1943 it was getting past its prime. An officer at Lulworth Camp, near Bovington, came up with the idea of fitting a better gun, the British 76.2mm, known as the 17 pounder. The new design would be known as the Sherman Firefly.

Support the work of The Tank Museum on Patreon: ► https://www.patreon.com/tankmuseum
Or donate http://tankmuseum.org/support-us/donate

SUBSCRIBE to The Tank Museum YouTube channel: ► http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChl-X…
Press the little bell above to enable NOTIFICATIONS so you don’t miss the latest Tank Museum videos.
Twitter: ► https://twitter.com/TankMuseum
Tiger Tank Blog: ► http://blog.tiger-tank.com/
Tank 100 First World War Centenary Blog: ► http://tank100.com/ #tankmuseum #tanks

QotD: Political colours in the US and Canada

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

We, Conservatives, were a coalition from the very beginning, in Canada. We were, of course, the Liberal-Conservative Party under Sir John A, reflecting the alliances formed between Ontario and Atlantic Canadian Tories and Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine’s moderate Parti bleu in Quebec. This was in contrast to the Liberals who were formed by the Clear Grits from Upper Canada and the Papineau’s radical Parti rouge in Quebec.

(So Quebec has always been central to both Conservative and Liberal political success in Canada and it was Quebec that gave us our modern Conservative blue and Liberal red icons ~ which are opposite to the Democratic blue and Republican red in the USA.)

Ted Campbell, “Our Conservative Roots”, Ted Campbell’s Point of View, 2017-03-05.

January 17, 2019

How effective was the Tiger really?

Filed under: Germany, History, Military, Technology, WW2 — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Military History Visualized
Published on 18 Dec 2018

There are quite many debates about the Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung E & B – the Tiger & Königstiger – tanks, so in this video we look at how effective or ineffective these panzers were in combat. This means we look at doctrine, kill to loss ratios, mission accomplishment and various other issues.

»» SUPPORT MHV ««
» patreon – https://www.patreon.com/mhv
» subscribe star – https://www.subscribestar.com/mhv

»» SOCIAL MEDIA ««
» twitter – https://twitter.com/MilHiVisualized

Military History Visualized provides a series of short narrative and visual presentations like documentaries based on academic literature or sometimes primary sources. Videos are intended as introduction to military history, but also contain a lot of details for history buffs. Since the aim is to keep the episodes short and comprehensive some details are often cut.

January 15, 2019

Celtic Myth – The Isle of Destiny – Extra Mythology – #1

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

Extra Credits
Published on 14 Jan 2019

Join the Patreon community! http://bit.ly/EMPatreon

Inis Fáil is the Isle of Destiny, in Ireland. It was here that the Children of the Danu were sent on a quest to find their destiny, but they would have to encounter the Fir Bolg first…

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress