Quotulatiousness

March 29, 2020

Yugoslavia Joins the Axis Powers. and then they don’t – WW2 – 083 – March 28, 1941

Filed under: China, Europe, Germany, History, Italy, Japan, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published 28 Mar 2020

Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers, which then triggers a pro-Allied coup, angering Hitler. Meanwhile, the Italians fail to outsmart the British as the Japanese hope to capitalise on their superior army.

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Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrG5J-K5AYAU1R-HeWSfY2D1jy_sEssNG
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

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
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
– Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
– Daniel Weiss
– Owen Robinson – https://www.instagram.com/owen.colori…
– Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/

Sources:
– Bundesarchiv
– Wellcome Images
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
– Војни архив
– Istorijski arhiv u Pančevu
– IWM: H 10922, A 10274
– Littorio class Battleship drawing by David Orlović from Wikimedia
– Italian heavy cruiser Pola drawing by K.E.Sergeev
– Prison icon by FORMGUT. from the Noun Project

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago (edited)
NOTE BY INDY: I researched and wrote this episode in January. Since then I have done deep research on the fighting for Greece and Crete, as well as the Barbarossa planning. I can now say unequivocally that I do NOT believe the actions in Yugoslavia had anything to do with Hitler changing the start of Barbarossa.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe in these tumultuous times. Indy was meant to fly back to Stockholm after a very full week of shooting, but his flight was changed to an earlier time (which they didn’t tell him), so now he’s “stuck” in the studio in Bavaria. He hopes to be able to fly back soon, but until then we’re writing and shooting a few more episodes for you. We hope we’re able to bring you all some distraction, relief or perspective. Stay safe!
Cheers, Joram

For dedicated progressives, the answer to every question is always “more government”

Filed under: Britain, Environment, Government, Health, Media, Politics, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Arthur Chrenkoff on the constant demand from the left for expanding the role of government in, basically, everything:

But even in more developed and democratic countries of Europe, while not leading to the overthrow of the political and economic system, World War One had contributed to a significant increase in the size and the power of the state. Even more so World War Two, where the war experience translated into post-war Keynesian-inspired social democratic welfare states, ironically nowhere more so than in the United Kingdom where the Tories won the war but the Labour won the peace. In some ways, the mobilisation of the state to fight a total war was merely the continuation of the mobilisation to fight the Great Depression, an economic upheaval like none before, which helped bring national socialism to power in Germany and realigned the American politics for the next half a century around a New Deal consensus. The GFC did not leave as extensive a legacy, except perhaps in the right’s surrender on government spending, budget deficits and public debt. If you are no longer restricted by the existing revenue, there is really no limit how big the government can grow.

Over the last two decades the left has been trying to use climate change as another crisis not be wasted. If the problem was CO2, bigger state and smaller market were always the answers if you listened to Bernie Sanders and AOC with their Green New Deal or to Extinction Rebellion, or Greta Thunberg or any number of other high profile individuals and groups. By and large, this has not worked because the threat of a hotter planet and a more extreme weather has never been immediate enough, despite all the 10 and 12 year deadlines until a “point of no return” and all the overheated, panic-mongering rhetoric about the end of the world.

Enter stage left Coronavirus. What opportunities have been missed or simply impossible to seize as a result of the GFC (because the economic crisis wasn’t in the end deep enough) or the “climate emergency” (because the threat was never urgent enough) are here to be seized during the pandemic, even more so if the pandemic (or the responses to) leads to a genuine global economic depression, perhaps worse than the one 90 years ago. No sane person wishes deadly pandemics on the world, but since it’s already here might as well act. The pretty sober and comfortably elite Economist calls what has already occurred around the world “the most dramatic extension of state power since the second world war.”

It has been noticeable to me, as I’m sure it has been to many others, how large sections of the left seem to be salivating at the prospect of complete and prolonged lock-downs and martial law-type situations. Such measures might possibly be in the end necessary to finally halt and contain the spread of the contagion (or, then again, they might not be), but the sheer rush towards them and enthusiasm by people, many of whom have spent the last five years decrying Donald Trumps of the world as dictators-in-waiting, leads me to believe that for many progressive and radical people authoritarianism is like rape: the public fear of it often masks the secret fantasies about it. It’s not a question of what, and not even of who’s in charge, even though they would prefer to be the ones at the helm, as long as it actually happens, because the state, being the left’s domain, will be the ultimate beneficiary and in time so will they. The left loves power, no matter how much they protest it’s all for the greater good. That’s why everyone wants to be a commissar and no one actually wants to be the proletarian.

But never mind COVID martial law; even if it were to last a few months, people need to be let out of their houses eventually and life has to return to some semblance of normality. What the left is more interested and more passionate about are the long lasting consequences, the fruit of power shifts in the world upended by a bat virus. The current crisis presents an almost unparalleled opportunity to expand the scope of governments at the expense of the private sector and the peoples and institute far-reaching changes to just about every aspect of life.

Wood toys to make with your kids

Filed under: Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Rex Krueger
Published 25 Mar 2020

Kids stuck at home? Get them into the shop and make these fun wooden toys.
More video and exclusive content: http://www.patreon.com/rexkrueger
Get the FREE Plans: https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/free…
(more…)

Can we keep a few of these innovations after the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak is over?

Filed under: Business, Cancon, Food, Government, Law, Wine — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Chris Selley finds a few of the changes to business practice in Ontario to be definite improvements that we should retain once the panic subsides:

“The Beer Store” by Like_the_Grand_Canyon is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Prepping my urban coronavirus hermitage involved packing my freezer with comforting made-ahead delights: pulled pork, chili, various pasta sauces including a life-altering Bolognese ragout recipe from Marie in Quebec City, who runs foodnouveau.com. Mostly, however, I’ve found myself wanting to eat … a bit more downscale. Supplies of Pogos and Bagel Bites are shamefully depleted, well ahead of schedule. And I do love that chicken from Popeye’s.

My superb local fried chicken joint has come up with a very simple and reassuring way to fill walk-up orders. It’s explained on the locked door: You phone in your order from outside, then retreat eight feet; an employee comes to the door with the credit/debit machine, makes eye contact, demonstratively puts on a fresh pair of gloves, opens the door and places the machine on a stool outside, along with the box of gloves. The customer dons a pair of the gloves, completes the transaction, discards the gloves in the waste basket provided, and retreats eight feet again. The employee, wearing fresh gloves, returns with the order and places it, with a smile, on the stool.

This is neither particularly ingenious nor unique. The food-delivery industry has taken to calling it “contactless delivery,” which is an amusingly jargon-y term for “pay in advance and we’ll leave it wherever you tell us and run.” I found myself weirdly impressed, though. Popeye’s system might not scale to Ronald’s place across the street, and I’m certainly not questioning McDo’s decision to shut down everything in Canada except delivery and drive-through. But especially living in a city where most everyone seems to be treating COVID-19 with suitable respect, it’s nice to appreciate the ingenuity that will keep those of us lucky enough to be sentenced to house arrest as comfortable as possible.

And it has been striking to see governments getting out of the way. Ontario, where change is generally about as welcome as a dry cough and fever, is all of a sudden a jurisdiction where licensed foodservice establishments can sell alcoholic beverages with takeout or delivery meals. It’s a place where supermarkets licensed to sell booze can do so as of 7 a.m. British Columbia made the same call on booze delivery and takeout. Alberta has allowed restaurants to sell their booze, period.

It’s hard not to notice that these loosened restrictions come as government-run bottle shops in Ontario and Quebec shorten hours. In Ontario, the Beer Store, a foreign-owned quasi-monopoly, has reduced hours and refuses to refund empty bottles. (There is no other place to refund empty bottles in Ontario.) They say you find out in a crisis who your friends are.

blogTO shows how some Toronto restaurants are getting creative with wine and food delivery options.

Armchair Classics: The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 17 Aug 2015

CONTENT DISCLAIMER: This video no longer meets my standards of quality for historical research and presentation. I made this one in the days long past, when the question of “How do I make an entertaining and historically interesting video” was answered by “IDK, memes I guess?”. Take the video above with a grain of salt and enjoy the jokes for now. We have a replacement planned, so stay tuned.

Hailing from Mesopotamia, it’s the Epic Of Gilgamesh!

Gregory brings you yet another dose of knowledge from the comfort of his comfy chair.

QotD: Cargo cults, ancient and modern

Filed under: Economics, Pacific, Quotations, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

A cargo cult is a belief system among members of a relatively undeveloped society in which adherents practice superstitious rituals hoping to bring modern goods supplied by a more technologically advanced society. These cults … were first described in Melanesia in the wake of contact with more technologically advanced Western cultures. The name derives from the belief which began among Melanesians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that various ritualistic acts such as the building of an airplane runway will result in the appearance of material wealth, particularly highly desirable Western goods (i.e., “cargo”), via Western airplanes.

To say that Pacific island societies were “relatively undeveloped” is a euphemism; they were primitive backward people who, when first encountered by European explorers, lived in a Neolithic stage of development far behind that of Mesopotamia in 1,500 B.C. That natives of Melanesia were at least 3,000 years behind Western civilization is simply a fact, but facts are now racism. Nevertheless, the point about cargo cult thinking is that these primitive islanders were unable to comprehend the advanced social and economic systems that produced, e.g., steam-powered ships, airplanes and the manufactured goods that the white man’s mechanical contrivances delivered. Utterly ignorant of how and why “cargo” had been produced and transported to their remote islands, the natives were understandably mystified when the arrival of “cargo” was interrupted. So they resorted to imitative rituals by which they believed the return of “cargo” might magically be reinstated.

The 21st-century American might laugh at these primitive superstitions, except that similarly ignorant “monkey see, monkey do” behaviors can be observed in our own society every day. My favorite example is the teenage boy who observes that girls are interested in athletes. The star basketball player in high school is popular with the girls, and so lower-status teenage boys — including the ones with zero athletic aptitude — will often emulate the athletic boys in terms of their attitudes, manners and clothing. This is why you see so many dorky suburban white boys wearing Nikes, NFL jerseys, etc., slouching around and speaking in a rap-influenced slang: “Wazzup, bruh?” These behavioral styles are an attempted imitation of popular black athletes. The clumsy adolescent white boy lacks the essential substance of the black athlete’s appeal, yet superstitiously believes (in cargo-cult manner) that he can obtain popularity by performing a superficial imitation.

Robert Stacy McCain, “The Cargo Cult Mentality”, The Other McCain, 2019-12-20.

March 28, 2020

Poland Will Not Bow to Nazis & Stalinists – WW2 – War Against Humanity 010

Filed under: Europe, Germany, History, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published 27 Mar 2020

Poland faces two brutal occupiers led by Hitler and Stalin, hellbent on wiping Poland off the map. But the Poles have been preparing to stand up and resist since before the war — and now they do.

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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…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Hosted by: Spartacus Olsson
Written by: Francis van Berkel and Spartacus Olsson
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Francis van Berkel
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/
Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
Owen Robinson – https://www.instagram.com/owen.colori…

Sources:
IWM IWM HU 128078, HU 17589, ((MOI) FLM 1117)
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Muzeum Historii Polski
USHMM
Letter by Bonegolem from the Noun Project
Letter by Mochammad Kafi from the Noun Project
oil barrel by BomSymbols from the Noun Project
sugar by Maria Zamchy from the Noun Project
Poison by Ben Davis from the Noun Project
Food by Made from the Noun Project
broken hammer by Graphic Enginer from the Noun Project
photo©ErlingMandelmann.ch http://www.erlingmandelmann.ch/portra…

Soundtrack from the Epidemic Sound:
Johannes Bornlof – “Deviation In Time”
Johannes Bornlof – “Death And Glory 3”
Reynard Deidel – “Deflection”
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Peter Sandberg – “Document This 1”
Fabien Tell – “Other Sides of Glory”
Farell Wooten – “Blunt Object”
Jo Wandrini – “Dawn of Civilization”
Phoenix Tail – “At the Front”
Andreas Jamsheree – “Guilty Shadows 4”
Philip Ayers – “Under the Dome”

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
17 minutes ago (edited)
We’re back in Poland to look at the resistance movement. Now, this is still a very controversial topic in 2020. So let us be crystal clear: the whole idea of blaming Poland, or holding Poles responsible for the Word censored by YouTube is absolutely ridiculous. But it is also not correct to claim that not a single Pole did anything to the word censored by YouTube during WW2, that is simply not correct. However, in difference to the rest of occupied Europe there was no organized collaboration, no systematic cooperation with the word censored by YouTube to round up, incarcerate, and murder the word censored by YouTube population. Acts of anti-word censored by YouTube were individual, isolated, and opportunistic in nature. The general rule in Poland was resistance and non-collaboration. We will cover the situation of the word censored by YouTube in Poland in 1940 and 1941 in our next War Against Humanity episode.

An then there are the Soviets … we will not bow to revisionism and propaganda and whitewash history. The way we portray the situation in Soviet occupied Poland in this episode and others is factually correct. Any attempts to obfuscate the Soviet part in the destruction of Poland, the incarceration of Poles, and the mass murders by the NKVD will not be tolerated here. That also goes for arguments to justify, or trivialize these crimes in any way — just like we won’t tolerate word censored by YouTube apologist rhetoric, we will not tolerate Stalinist apologist rhetoric, We will also not debate this, so save yourself the effort and just don’t even start. We have made several videos about the interwar era in Poland in our Between Two wars episode where we also talk about all the things that are usually dragged out to somehow make an argument that the war of aggression and dismantling of Poland by the Red Army and NKVD was the right thing to do have been addressed in those videos. They are here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrG5J-K5AYAWDpPU1GbLYBKAPXfqkOipm

Grooving and Rebating using Hand Tools | The Cabinet Project #6.5 | Free Online Woodworking School

Filed under: Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Matt Estlea
Published 24 Mar 2020

In this video, I show you how to cut the grooves and the rebates for the cabinet by hand. If you haven’t already, be sure to watch the power tool method for this part of the project. The information required to complete this step, regardless of which method you go for, is distributed across both videos.

See the full lesson here:
https://mattestlea.com/free-online-wo…

Plans for this project:
https://mattestlea.com/product/cabine…

Buy Pre-Planed Material Packs for this Project Here:
www.mattestlea.com/projectpacks

_________________________________________________________________

Support what I do by becoming a Patron! This will help fund new tools, equipment and cover my overheads. Meaning I can continue to bring you regular, high quality, free content. Thank you so much for your support! https://www.patreon.com/mattestlea

Don’t want to commit to a monthly direct debit but still want to help out? That’s fine!
You can make a one time donation here: www.mattestlea.com/donate
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SOCIAL MEDIA
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_________________________________________________________________
See what tools I use here: www.mattestlea.com/equipment
My Website: www.mattestlea.com
_________________________________________________________________

My name is Matt Estlea, I’m a 24 year old Woodworker from Basingstoke in England and my aim is to make your woodworking less s***.

I come from 5 years tuition at Rycotewood Furniture Centre with a further 1 year working as an Artist in Residence at the Sylva Foundation. I now teach City and Guilds Furniture Making at Rycotewood as of September 2018.

If you’re interested in studying at Rycotewood, view their courses here:
www.mattestlea.com/rycotewood

I also had 5 years of experience working at Axminster Tools and Machinery where I helped customers with purchasing tools, demonstrated in stores and events, and gained extensive knowledge about a variety of tools and brands. I discontinued this at the start of 2019 to focus solely on video creation and teaching.

During the week, I film woodworking projects, tutorials, reviews and a viewer favourite ‘Tool Duel’ where I compare two competitive manufacturers tools against one another to find out which is best. I also have a Free Online Woodworking School which you should definitely check out!

www.mattestlea.com/school

I like to have a laugh and my videos are quite fast paced BUT you will learn a lot, I assure you.

Lets go make a mess.

Woodrow Wilson (pt.1) | Historians Who Changed History

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

The Cynical Historian
Published 28 Dec 2017

Time to finally tell you why I’ve used Woodrow Wilson as a bit of a rhetorical punching bag. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. This part will cover his life and scholarship before the presidency. It’s going to be quite a trip. [References on YouTube description]

————————————————————

Support the channel through Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian

LET’S CONNECT:
https://twitter.com/Cynical_History
————————————————————
Wiki:
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was an American statesman and academic who served as the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910 and then ran and was elected as a progressive Democrat to the office of Governor of New Jersey. Wilson’s victory in the 1912 presidential election made him the first Southerner elected to the presidency since Zachary Taylor in 1848. He also led the United States during World War I, establishing an activist foreign policy known as “Wilsonianism.” He was a major leader at the Paris [Versailles] Peace Conference in 1919, where he championed the proposed League of Nations. However, he was unable to obtain Senate approval for U.S. membership. After he suffered debilitating strokes in September 1919, his wife and staff members handled most of his presidential duties.
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Hashtags: #History #WoodrowWilson #LostCause #historians #Princeton #biography

QotD: A man’s view of home decoration projects

Filed under: Football, Humour, Quotations — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

Potentially offensive language warning — hence the NSFW tag — so the QotD is below the fold:

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March 27, 2020

“Aces In Exile” Pt.2 – Non-British RAF Pilots – Sabaton History 060 [Official]

Filed under: Britain, Cancon, Europe, History, Media, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

Sabaton History
Published 26 Mar 2020

“Aces in Exile” return! Interesting times make for interesting men. In this second part we talk about some individual stories of Czechoslovakian, Polish and Canadian pilots that all fought under the banner of the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War. How they escaped German occupation, how they traveled through war torn Europe, and how they eventually found themselves fighting in a different uniform for a different country.

We would like to thank the World of Tanks team for their contribution and help with the video filming. If you’re not yet a World of Tanks player, join the game and get your hands on cool in-game stuff for free via the link: https://redir.wargaming.net/w7fwclmx/…
Support Sabaton History on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory

Listen to “Aces in Exile” on the album Coat of Arms:
CD: http://bit.ly/CoatOfArmsStore
Spotify: http://bit.ly/CoatOfArmsSpotify
Apple Music: http://bit.ly/CoatOfArmsAppleMusic
iTunes: http://bit.ly/CoatOfArmsiTunes
Amazon: http://bit.ly/CoatOfArmsAmzn
Google Play: http://bit.ly/CoatOfArmsGooglePlay

Check out the trailer for Sabaton’s new album The Great War right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZP1…

Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShop

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Broden, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound Editing by: Marek Kaminski
Maps by: Eastory – https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory

Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.

Sources:
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
– IWM: CH 1566
– Morane-Saulnier icon by Truszko from Wikimedia
– D.520 icon by PpPachy from Wikimedia
– Hurricane icon by Martin Čížek from Wikimedia

An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.

© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.

The Wuhan Coronavirus sucks, our data on it sucks … but our media suck most of all

Filed under: China, Government, Health, Media, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

The all-hysteria, all the time media will have much to regret once the worst of the Wuhan Coronavirus epidemic has run its course:

  • The data we have sucks, and thus any conclusions we are drawing mostly suck too. The data is worse than just being incomplete or bad — if it was randomly distributed, we could live with that. But the lack of test kits and how we have deployed the few we have means that the data is severely biased. We are only testing people who are strongly symptomatic. If there is a normal distribution of outcomes from this disease, we are only testing on the right side of the distribution. We have no idea where the median is or how long the tail is to the left side of asymptomatic outcomes. The only thing we absolutely know about the disease is its not as deadly as the media is portraying as we are missing hundreds of thousands of cases in the denominator of the mortality rates. The media has also been terrible about reporting on risk factors of those who died. When a bunch of people died suddenly in Seattle, one had to read down 5 paragraphs into the story to find that they were all over 70 in an old-age home. Or when prime-of-life people die, facts such as their being type 1 diabetics — a known severe risk factor for this virus (and one that makes it different from the flu) are left out.
  • The media is constantly confusing changes in measurement technique and intensity with changes in the underlying progress of the virus itself. Changes in case numbers have as much to do with testing patterns and availability than they do with the real spread of the disease.
  • While COVID-19 is likely worse than the normal flu, our perceptions of how much worse are strongly affected by observer bias. Frankly, if every news broadcast every night spent 15 minutes reciting flu deaths each day, we would all be hiding in our homes away from flu. They present a healthy man in his thirties dying clearly as the tragedy it is, but the spoken or unspoken subtext is, “this is abnormal so this thing is much worse.” But it seems abnormal because we do not report on the very real stories of healthy young people who die of the flu. My nephew who was 25 years old and totally healthy with no pre-existing conditions died of the flu last month — and no one featured this tragedy on the national news.
  • The data we are getting sucks worse because the media has decided, as one big group, that for our own good they are going to limit all facts about the virus to only the bad ones. There is a strong sense — you see it on Twitter both in Twitter’s policies as well as Twitter group attacks — that saying anything that might in any way reduce one’s fear of the disease should be banned for our own good. One of the more prominent examples was Medium removing an article NOT because it was proven wrong but because it took one side of a very open question and it was obviously decided it was “unsafe” to allow that side to even be aired.

Cutting Grooves and Rebates using Routers | The Cabinet Project #6 | Free Online Woodworking School

Filed under: Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Matt Estlea
Published 20 Mar 2020

In this part of the project, I will be showing you both the hand tool and the machine tool method of cutting the grooves and rebates to accept the shelf and back panel.

To see both methods, visit my Free Online Woodworking School. This link will take you directly to the correct lesson:
https://mattestlea.com/free-online-wo…

Plans for this project:
https://mattestlea.com/product/cabine…

Buy Pre-Planed Material Packs for this Project Here:
www.mattestlea.com/projectpacks
_________________________________________________________________
Threaded Guide Bush Set: https://mattestlea.com/threaded-guide…
You also NEED this adapter: https://mattestlea.com/threaded-guide…
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Supporting Resources:

GMF1600 Router Review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2TjW…

_________________________________________________________________
Support what I do by becoming a Patron! This will help fund new tools, equipment and cover my overheads. Meaning I can continue to bring you regular, high quality, free content. Thank you so much for your support! https://www.patreon.com/mattestlea

Don’t want to commit to a monthly direct debit but still want to help out? That’s fine!
You can make a one time donation here: www.mattestlea.com/donate
You can donate us biscuits here: www.mattestlea.com/wishlist
_________________________________________________________________
BUY THE WOODWORKING BIBLE HERE:
www.mattestlea.com/the-woodworkers-manual
_________________________________________________________________

SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mattestlea
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mattestlea
Patreon: www.patreon.com/mattestlea
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/mattestlea
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/matt-estlea-b6414b11a/
_________________________________________________________________
See what tools I use here: www.mattestlea.com/equipment
My Website: www.mattestlea.com
_________________________________________________________________

My name is Matt Estlea, I’m a 24 year old Woodworker from Basingstoke in England and my aim is to make your woodworking less s***.

I come from 5 years tuition at Rycotewood Furniture Centre with a further 1 year working as an Artist in Residence at the Sylva Foundation. I now teach City and Guilds Furniture Making at Rycotewood as of September 2018.

If you’re interested in studying at Rycotewood, view their courses here:
www.mattestlea.com/rycotewood

I also had 5 years of experience working at Axminster Tools and Machinery where I helped customers with purchasing tools, demonstrated in stores and events, and gained extensive knowledge about a variety of tools and brands. I discontinued this at the start of 2019 to focus solely on video creation and teaching.

During the week, I film woodworking projects, tutorials, reviews and a viewer favourite ‘Tool Duel’ where I compare two competitive manufacturers tools against one another to find out which is best. I also have a Free Online Woodworking School which you should definitely check out!

www.mattestlea.com/school

I like to have a laugh and my videos are quite fast paced BUT you will learn a lot, I assure you.

Lets go make a mess.

Sensible risk management is not compatible with the “precautionary principle”

Filed under: Government, Health — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

David Zaruk wrote last week for Science 2.0 Europe:

Two decades of the precautionary principle as the key policy tool for managing uncertainties has neutered risk management capacities by offering, as the only approach, the systematic removal of any exposure to any hazard. As the risk-averse precautionary mindset cements itself, more and more of us have become passive docilians waiting to be nannied. We no longer trust and are no longer trusted with risk-benefit choices as we are channelled down over-engineered preventative paths. While it is important to reduce exposure to risks, our excessively-protective risk managers have, in their zeal, removed our capacity to manage risks ourselves. Precaution over information, safety over autonomy, dictation over accountability.

  • Whatever happened to “Keep out of reach of children”? Now we cannot be trusted and all products must be child-safe.
  • Whatever happened to “Handle with care”? Now safety by design has removed the need for individuals to exercise common sense or risk reduction measures.
  • Whatever happened to trust? Now individuals are no longer left with the capacity to make their own decisions in managing personal risks.

“These are good things” precaution advocates would retort “since people often make mistakes and bad things can better be prevented!”. While continuous improvement of safety systems has its value, the bigger the fences, the less autonomously the individuals will react (creating a society of docile followers). The precautionary approach implies a lack of trust in individuals’ capacities to make their own (rational) choices. The over-engineered risk-management process would remove any situation where choices could be made. Fine for cases where there are no trade-offs, disruptions or loss of benefits (when the sheep have plenty of grass in their field), but in times of crisis (exposure to hazards), when precaution is your only tool, then sacrifice is the only solution.

[…]

When the public now sees everything of modern life (work, school, public events …) cancelled in a knee-jerk precautionary impulse, is it any wonder they are panicking? Enter the opportunist to sell you the silver solution or the naturopath detox remedy to put your mind at ease. Enter the quack to tell you to drink bleach. Enter the racist who will use the fear to mobilise outrage. Exit rationality and risk management.

With no bullets left in the risk-management gun, the only thing left to do is run … or as it is more commonly called: apply the precautionary principle. Precaution should only be applied after other risk management measures have failed but given how horribly inadequate our capacities to govern have become, it is the only strategy our regulators have come to know.

Slide from a presentation by Patti Gettinger, 2011-07-11.
Original slideshow at https://fr.slideshare.net/regsgridlock/the-precautionary-principle-8656034

H/T to Johnathan Pearce for the link.

The Best SMLE: The No1 MkV Trials Rifle

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

Forgotten Weapons
Published 18 Nov 2019

After World War One, the British looked at how to apply the lessons of the war to development of a new infantry rifle. Even before the war, a decision had been made to move to an aperture type rear sight — which would have been used on the Pattern 1913 Enfield, had the war no interrupted adoption of that model. So after the war, trials were made on some MkIII SMLE rifles refitted with rear aperture sights. These trials were successful enough to justify production of a substantial number of rifles for troop trials. This would be designated the No1 MkV rifle, and 20,000 of them were made between 1922 and 1924.

The magazine cutoff was retained in the MkV rifles, as were the volley sights in the initial production — along with an aperture rear sight marked out to 1500 yards. Following concerns about the durability of the sight and its adjustment latch, it was redesigned slightly, and the new version only went out to 1400 yards. On this second variation, the volley sights were omitted.

The new rifles was taken to Bisley and input was sought from both military units and civilian marksmen from the British NRA. The feedback that was received was that the sight was too fragile, its adjustments were too coarse, and the barrel was too light. These changes were implemented in the No1 MkVI rifle which would ultimately be adopted as the N4 MkI; the classic World War 2 version oft he Lee Enfield.

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