Random facts you found

[Aldarion]

I'm doing some research on warfare on the Ottoman-Habsburg (Croatian and Hungarian) border in 15th and 16th centures. While doing this, I discovered that Hungarian Parliament only in 1514 forbade serfs from freely moving from property of one noble to property of another; that is, until then, peasants serf could - in theory - leave the master he disliked and choose another one. This naturally led to peasant rebellion led by Gyorgy Dosza. Said decision was also adopted in Croatia in 1515.

 

[skip.knox]

It's a broad generalization, but broadly speaking <g> eastern Europe experienced increasing restrictions and exactions on the peasantry over the early modern period (roughly 1500-1800). In the later Middle Ages (1200-1500), there was a substantial free peasantry in large areas east of the Elbe-Saale river line. Lots of exceptions and counter-trends, of course.

 

[Karlin]

The United Kingdom took out a loan to pay reparations to slave owners in 1833 and only paid off the debt in 2015.
Note that slaves were freed there long before they were in the US, and without a war.

 

[Finchbearer]

Franz Kafka left explicit instructions in his will to his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his manuscripts upon his death. But Brod defied Kafka's wishes and instead chose to publish his writings, believing them to be significant.

Sorry it’s not war related…

 

[Aldarion]

Sorry it’s not war related…

Doesn't need to be... this threat is just for "random interesting stuff".

 

[CupofJoe]

The United Kingdom took out a loan to pay reparations to slave owners in 1833 and only paid off the debt in 2015.
Note that slaves were freed there long before they were in the US, and without a war.

The reparations did go to the slave owners and not the slaves. At least the US tried with 40 acres and a mule...

 

[Rexenm]

US had slaves from not only Africa, but Ireland. Great Britain was under the control of the Britons and the invading Saxons of Roman occupation before Druid monoliths were changed into crosses. If you search around that time, you will find funny things like Picts. The feudal system had lordly castles and impoverished serfs, until pirates, or buccaneers, started farming the Caribbean for dried meats.

 

[pmmg]

Well, one thing I learned recently, if you try to get a windshield wiper arm off with a pry tool, like they show in the youtube vids, you can crack your windshield.

 

[Aldarion]

Recreated T-Rex sounds... listen it with bass turned on. Far scarier than the Jurassic Park:

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Recreated T-Rex sounds... listen it with bass turned on. Far scarier than the Jurassic Park:

Along the way I picked up the ability to put a lot of embouchure into my voice that gives me a lot of resonance when I speak or sing, so I have this awesome, sexy voice perfect for narrating dirty books (with a face for radio)... and sound exactly like this when I blow my nose. It turns heads.

 

[Ned Marcus]

I discovered that doves can see ultraviolet frequencies of light, and that the expression that the tallest poppy gets its head cut off (tall poppy syndrome) apparently comes from Tarquinius Superbus, a Roman king who rushed round his garden cutting the heads off his tallest poppies to demonstrate what he did to enemies.

 

[skip.knox]

Reformers in 19thc France tried to get peasants to use tile on roofs because the traditional thatch was so vulnerable to fire. Pretty much every fire was a catastrophic fire.
but
Tile is heavy--too heavy for the wattle and other traditional building materials. The roofs would collapse. So the reform also required stronger timber construction.
but
The only practical way to build such houses required the use of nails. So the peasants had to be able to afford nails. Which they sort of could.
but
Markets for such resources tended to be restricted to urban centers well away from villages and hamlets in the French countryside.

The situation changed with the advent of railroads. These could bring heavy materials such as iron work further into the countryside, making them available for local construction. By late 19thc, early 20thc, there was an architectural revolution, not only in the countryside but also in small towns. And the reformers could believe they finally had got through to those ignorant peasants. <g>

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Being not as much of a military historian as I am a student of language and literature, the entire idea that they even had neophyte special forces not only tickled the intellect, it informed about the last quarter of Beneath a Stone Sky!

https://www.amazon.com/Special-Operations-Chivalry-1100-1550-Warfare/

 

[Malik]

Camels can kick sideways.

(Not me in the pic, but basically this.)

 

[skip.knox]

Also, do not try to block a kicking camel with your elbow. Pro tip.

 

[Malik]

Also, do not try to block a kicking camel with your elbow. Pro tip.

Also this. He caught me square in the rucksack and launched me. They can chamber a kick and load up, and shoot that foot like a snap kick. If it hadn't been for my ruck, he'd have broken my spine. I left a divot in the Earth that's probably still there.

I wasn't remotely mean to him. He was just an asshole. Camels are proof that God hates us and wants us to be miserable.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

My parents had alpaca for years. I have seen that attitude stuffed into a little, floofy body that will spit without hesitation or reason. Divas, all of them.