THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
Break Out Area
message 2451:
by
Tony
(new)
Dec 24, 2022 02:35PM
Merry Christmas all, hope Santa brings you all some good books!
reply
|
flag
Merry Christmas to all!
Merry Christmas from the Netherlands to all. Thanks for all your comments, suggestions and reviews this year. No bridge was too far for you guys.
Dj wrote: "Merry Xmas and Happy Snoggletog"Snoggletog may be from a movie but I think it is much better than (in historic order) Hannamassanzaofus. Let us promote this as a way out of the conflicting mid winter holidays.
Happy Snoggleton to all and to all a good night.
Thanks, everybody! You'll have to let me know what books everybody managed to snag today.
Merry Christmas everyone - This will be a lazy day. My family does the big feast on Christmas Eve, so that is done. The presents are all unwrapped and now its off to church and then some visiting.We escaped the frigid temps that or happening in the eastern half of the US, but there is three or four in inches of snow on the ground - that counts as a White Christmas in my book :)
Once again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Yes happy, I heard of the cold wheater in the US. I hope all of you are OK and hopefully still manage to spend Christmas time with the family.
Thought this pretty interesting and cool, the jet fighter pilots that shot down the Chinese balloon call signs were Frank01 and Frank02 in honor of Frank Luke (MOH) balloon buster of WWI.
Doubledf99.99 wrote: "Thought this pretty interesting and cool, the jet fighter pilots that shot down the Chinese balloon call signs were Frank01 and Frank02 in honor of Frank Luke (MOH) balloon buster of WWI."I made a snarky comment just yesterday on The Washington Post about our need to resurrect Frank Luke.
After they shot the Balloon down, the Chinese got all hissy about it. They are picking the debris up out of the water off South Carolina so it would seem we will be able to see just how civilian it was.
Dj wrote: "After they shot the Balloon down, the Chinese got all hissy about it. They are picking the debris up out of the water off South Carolina so it would seem we will be able to see just how civilian it..."Good news indeed :)
The Chinese are a bit like the Russians, who complained that the Ukrainians were fighting back.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Dj wrote: "After they shot the Balloon down, the Chinese got all hissy about it. They are picking the debris up out of the water off South Carolina so it would seem we will be able to see just how ..."At first I wondered why the U.S. didn't shoot down the balloon violating its airspace while it flew over remote areas of Montana. (Which are extremely remote). Then I guessed the equipment onboard must be transmitting data via some type of comms link and perhaps we were intercepting that link. Such intercepts may have been valuable intel. Perhaps safety of people on the ground, as the White House stated, was the cause. Today batteries are much improved and solar power is easier to collect and store, but early Soviet satellites used mini-nuclear generators. There was a least one case I recall of a Soviet satellite falling to earth with its radioactive power system intact.
Very interesting MR9, glad that in the end it went down, and I hope the U.S. can gather some useful intel from the wreckage.
"The conqueror is always a lover of peace (as Bonaparte always asserted himself); he would like to make his entry into our state unopposed. -- Clausewitz, with Lenin's marginal reply, "Ah, Ah! Witty!"'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Dj wrote: "After they shot the Balloon down, the Chinese got all hissy about it. They are picking the debris up out of the water off South Carolina so it would seem we will be able to see just how ..."
What to do if your kid says they want a tank for their Birthdayhttps://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1423...
That's what AR was always asking for as a kid ... Dj wrote: "What to do if your kid says they want a tank for their Birthday
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1423..."
carl wrote: "That's what AR was always asking for as a kid ... Dj wrote: "What to do if your kid says they want a tank for their Birthday
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1423...""
Well really, who could blame him?
Dj wrote: "What to do if your kid says they want a tank for their Birthdayhttps://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1423..."
That's great! :)
Dj wrote: "What to do if your kid says they want a tank for their Birthdayhttps://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1423..."
I tried to do that but t came out like this:
Very funny Nick! :)
Nick wrote: "Dj wrote: "What to do if your kid says they want a tank for their Birthdayhttps://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1423..."
I tried to do that but t came out like this:
"
That's what happens when you have siblings. LOL
So in general I do a lot of hunting on youtube for music videos since I gave up on finding a decent Radio Station. So here are two I found about combat, but back in the horse and sword days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxlRJ...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SZuF...
This first is called the Winged Hussars and it is about the end of the siege of Vienna
The second is called Wolf Totem and it shows clips from a movie about the greatest warlord in history. Genghis Khan
Might want to turn the volume down.
I've watched Wolf Totem a few times, I quite enjoy it, it's got a great film clip!
"Might want to turn the volume down", indeed, Dj! Cool video, but that music is beyond awful...I don't have anything against heavy metal; I still listen to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Kreator, etc. once in a while (I just got a new CD of Judas Priest's 'Sad Wings of Destiny' a few weeks ago, for example). I don't care for that 'Winged Hussars' song at all, though. I won't be running out to buy any of Sabaton's records any time soon, that's for damned sure! The funny thing is, I think the YouTube algorithm fed me that video about a year ago- unless there are two different heavy metal songs about winged hussars, hahaha!
The reason I got served with that video is that I was watching a documentary about metal bands in Africa, so I started getting all these weird, crazy bands from all over the world in my feed. There's a pretty good Hungarian band called, for God knows what bizarre reason, "Dalriada"; I seem to remember that was what I was watching right before the winged hussars video. Dalriada play "folk metal" and sing in Hungarian (I have no idea why they named their band after a 5th to 9th century Irish/Scottish kingdom); they also write songs about historical themes. Apparently they are fairly successful- they have released several records at this point. I believe the founding members are only about ten years younger than I am, and they have kept the band going for more than 20 years now, if I'm not mistaken.
Here is a link to one of their videos from 2007: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQQGV...).
Here is a more recent one, from 2021 I believe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reSsz...)
I also saw a really good movie a few years ago about the siege of Vienna, which had some really well-done scenes of the winged hussars charging into battle, but I'm damned if I can remember what it was called. All I remember is that it was a European production...
Liam wrote: ""Might want to turn the volume down", indeed, Dj! Cool video, but that music is beyond awful...I don't have anything against heavy metal; I still listen to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, K..."
After listening to Winged Hussars I listened to an album by Sabbaton and I have to say that other than this one song I wouldn't listen to anything else by them even though most of their songs seem to be historical in theme.
The second song is by a group from Mongolia and is supposed to be Heavy Metal...I have to say it is about the only time I have heard an instrument like a violin in heavy metal.
Yeah, it's still fairly uncommon to find different instrumentation, or really that much variation of any kind in metal or any of its sub-genres. Generally speaking, most metal has seemed incredibly boring & predictable to me for quite a few years now. That's why it was so interesting to explore the "obscure world metal" rabbit-hole for a few hours. There have been a few exceptions- I know some people consider the Mars Volta to be a metal band, for example, and they were great...I forgot to add this above, but I found the song by the Mongolian band to be far more interesting than the other one- it's pretty difficult to sound menacing (much less interesting) when you have just drums, bass, violin & vocals, but they actually pulled it off!
how true, I'd build them, my little brothers would break 'em. Dj wrote:
"That's what happens when you have siblings. LOL
."
Well, I'm back home in Australia and after conducting a thorough audit the library and wine cellar all appear to be in order.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Well, I'm back home in Australia and after conducting a thorough audit the library and wine cellar all appear to be in order."Hope you had a great trip, AR.
It's hard to complain about a holiday, but overall it was pretty good. I got to see a lot of places that I had read about in my history books and managed to visit the tombs of Machiavelli, Galileo and Michelangelo which was pretty impressive.
Wow, that's really cool- good for you, Rick! In one of the pizzerias at which I used to work here in Detroit, one of my co-workers was a Turkish girl who was from one of the coastal cities there (either İznik/Nicaea or İzmir/Smyrna, I don't remember which). One day I made a comment to the effect that it must have been amazing to grow up in a place where one would be surrounded by reminders of human history that went back so much further than three centuries or so. She looked at me like I was the dumbest son of a bitch she'd ever seen, and pointed out (quite accurately) that neither she nor most other people even cared about that...
One of the best things about this group is that it provides a venue for those of us who do actually care about history!!!
Very true Liam! It is funny when you visit certain places and the inhabitants are surrounded by history and you wonder what they think about living so close to such things; do they notice or care at all?
It reminds me of Napoleon who had to remind his soldiers in Egypt that "forty centuries look down upon you".
Boudewijn wrote: "It reminds me of Napoleon who had to remind his soldiers in Egypt that "forty centuries look down upon you"."Another excellent point Boudewijn!
Thanks AR. Although I guess the grenadiers can be forgiven to not have noticed the pyramids, as the Mamelukes were charging towards them.
Boudewijn wrote: "Thanks AR. Although I guess the grenadiers can be forgiven to not have noticed the pyramids, as the Mamelukes were charging towards them."😂😂😂
It was not for lack of trying ... 'Aussie Rick' wrote: after conducting a thorough audit the library and wine cellar all appear to be in order."
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Well, I'm back home in Australia and after conducting a thorough audit the library and wine cellar all appear to be in order."Told you I was a polite guest/intruder. LOL Hope you had a great trip
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Very true Liam! It is funny when you visit certain places and the inhabitants are surrounded by history and you wonder what they think about living so close to such things; do they notice or care a..."Back in my working days at Camp Casey the old Korean gentleman who cleaned our office was a Korean War Vet/POW, on one week just before the 4th of July he asked me how old the USA was I told him and he said "your still young pups".
I'm currently reading Simon Sebag Montefiore' latest book; "The World: A Family History of Humanity". I figured some group members may get a kick out of this story in regard to Tamerlane:"Tamerlane had planned to be buried in his home town of Kosh, but instead he rested in the Persian-style octahedral Gur Amir with its azure dome in Samarkand beside his grandson Muhammad Shah. Legend claimed that if Tamerlane's grave was disturbed, a more terrible conqueror would arise. In 19 June 1941, on Stalin's orders, the Soviet archaeologist Mikhail Gerasimov opened the grave - identifying the leg fracture of Tamerlane and using the skull to recreate his face, thus enabling us to see what he looked like. Three days later Hitler invaded Russia."
Tamerlane’s Curse:
https://www.advantour.com/uzbekistan/...
Morning, all. Take a look at the early morning video of the breached dam released by the Ukrainians- look at the remains of the turbine house. My money says the Russians were intending only to destroy that turbine house (leaving the dam itself intact), but they fucked up badly with the demo charges, displacing part of the structure & breaching the dam. I suspect a lot of Russian conscripts are going to drown today.
Just got back from a family vacation, at the end of which we visited and toured Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado. This area was inhabited by the Pueblo - in pit houses on the Mesa top (dating back to 550 A.D.) and in cliff dwellings (that date back to the 1200s). The US may be young as a nation, but our land and associated history is much older (well proven by Mesa Verde).Liam - Hoping that water does some damage against the Russians. Also, I'm sure Detroit has a plethora of pizza places, but did it happen to be Supino's Pizzeria that you worked at? I ask because a cousin of mine owns Supino's.
We visited Canyon de Chelly back in 2010. Beautiful. You're right Theresa, those are old lands.
Theresa-No, that particular pizzeria was Sgt. Pepperoni's, which is (or was- I'm not sure if it is still there) inside the Majestic Theater complex on Woodward Avenue. I've never worked at Supino's, though both myself and my wife worked at the Russell Street Deli, which was right next door. When our boss there decided to open a pizzeria next door, he initially said he wanted me to manage it, so I was actually the person who cleaned all the junk out of the building before the pizza ovens were installed, etc. That pizzeria ended up being called Flat Planet. After I did all that work, a co-worker with whom I had never gotten along (and who had never even worked in a pizza shop before) was made the manager rather than me.
It is extremely difficult to fail in the pizza business due to the comparatively high profit margin (unless the surrounding area is over-saturated with competing pizzerias), but a few months after opening, Flat Planet was hemorrhaging money. Despite a decent amount of business, they were drowning in a sea of red ink, and the owner couldn't figure out why. In desperation, he asked me to take a look at the operation, and try to find the problem.
If my poor wife had not still worked for him, I would have laughed in his face- after all, he had taken me off the schedule at the deli, conned me into cleaning out the building next door for a pittance, repeatedly told me he wanted me to manage the pizzeria, and left me angry, broke and looking for a new job. I agreed to do what he wanted because I didn't want him to do anything bad to my wife, and I hoped he might at least give me back my old job.
It turned out that the problem was easy to spot, and was caused by the fact that none of those idiots had ever worked in a pizza shop. The reason they were losing money is that they were making two weeks' worth of dough and sauce every morning, and throwing it away every evening- for almost three months straight! It also didn't help that they were incompetent at both anyway; among other things, when your dough has not cured properly, it is difficult to work with, and difficult to make pizzas that look or taste halfway decent...
Needless to say, fat Bob (my ungrateful former boss) gave me nothing but empty promises to put me back on the schedule. The asshole who was mis-managing the pizzeria was furious & humiliated, which was somewhat amusing at the time. The original reason we didn't get along was that he had hit on my wife when he first started working with us, and she laughed at him. After running the pizzeria into the ground, he inherited some money and bought the deli from Bob; the first thing he did was fire the entire staff, including my wife. Needless to say, the deli is no longer in business; the other restaurant he tried to open never even opened for business. I don't remember whether (or which) one of those assholes sold the pizzeria equipment to your cousin, but if so I sincerely hope they lost a lot of money on the deal, and that your cousin profited from their stupidity & arrogance.
Supino's has gotten good reviews essentially since it opened. I've had their pizza a couple of times, and thought it was pretty good...
À propos what I said a few days ago, above, a few hours after the Nova Kahovka dam was blown (this is from an article published yesterday by The Daily Beast): "The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) posted an audio clip on its Telegram channel Friday of the purportedly incriminating phone call. The agency said one of the two men heard in the one-and-a-half minutes of audio is a Russian soldier describing who was responsible for the dam’s failure.
'They (the Ukrainian military) didn’t strike it. That was our sabotage group', the alleged Russian solider [sic] says, according to a Kyiv Independent translation of the conversation. 'They wanted to scare people with this dam... It didn’t go according to plan, and (they did) more than they planned for'.”
Liam wrote: "À propos what I said a few days ago, above, a few hours after the Nova Kahovka dam was blown (this is from an article published yesterday by The Daily Beast): "The Security Service of Ukraine (SB..."
I saw that story on the news over here as well Liam. Yet to be independently verified but it sounds about right eh!
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
The Shepherd (other topics)The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View (other topics)
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View (other topics)
New Contributions to the History of the Ukrainian Language (other topics)
Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Frederick Forsyth (other topics)Edward N. Luttwak (other topics)
Edward N. Luttwak (other topics)
Michael Moser (other topics)
Mary Elise Sarotte (other topics)
More...
