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Milestones
- Thread starter admihoek
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wulf
God-Emperor
There is no 'almost' about it.
And don't get me started on professional wrestling.
There is no 'almost' about it.
And don't get me started on professional wrestling.
I side with Wulf on both points.
M
montycrusto
Guest
Well.. ok. But without documentaries like “Dukes of Hazard”, how are we Europeans supposed to learn about daily life in America?
Point taken … it’s like folks on this side of the pond getting an accurate view of British life and culture through viewing Fawlty Towers and Downton Abbey?Well.. ok. But without documentaries like “Dukes of Hazard”, how are we Europeans supposed to learn about daily life in America?
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Don't forget 'Keeping up Appearances' for daily life, 'Blackadder' for a good understanding of British history, and 'Are you Being Served' to get insight in British economy and trading practices!
wulf
God-Emperor
Oh no.......Well.. ok. But without documentaries like “Dukes of Hazard”, how are we Europeans supposed to learn about daily life in America?
Please tell me that's not really happening.
Frank Petrexa
Tribune
Yes, forgive me, I'm not much of a car guy. I traded in a 1988 Honda Civic with about 25,000 miles on it for a Fit in 2016. It was a stick, and was the second car I bought on m;y own. I wanted a stick in the Fit too, but was told "yeah, that's what the advertising says, but we'll be damned lucky to find one". Cell phones (and computers) have killed the romance of the automobile.
I have always been interested in how dysfunctional Chrysler has been as a company over the years, though, and I certainly remember Lee Ioacoca.
Frank Petrexa
Tribune
Our PBS (Public Broadcasting System) station here used to run ancient episodes of "Are You Being Served", "Yes, Minister", and "Fawlty Towers". I saw "Danger, UXB" as well.Don't forget 'Keeping up Appearances' for daily life, 'Blackadder' for a good understanding of British history, and 'Are you Being Served' to get insight in British economy and trading practices!
"Captain Peacock, I'll have you know I was flat on my back on Greenham Common because of the German Air Force."
"And for the rest of the war she was flat on her back because of the American Air Force."
"The Americans are over paid, over sexed, and over here."
"The British are underpaid, under sexed, and under Eisenhower."
Eisenhower supposedly sent an staff officer home for calling someone a "British son of a bitch". "You can call anyone you wish a son of a bitch, you just cannot call him a British son of a bitch."
When asked whom he would rather fight, Napoleon is supposed to have said, "Allies".
Oh yes. I should have mentioned that one.
Whereas Wellington said of his army, "I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me."
While Allo! Allo! is our reliable guide to understanding both the French and the GermansDon't forget 'Keeping up Appearances' for daily life, 'Blackadder' for a good understanding of British history, and 'Are you Being Served' to get insight in British economy and trading practices!
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
And the Italians!While Allo! Allo! is our reliable guide to understanding both the French and the Germans
And to understand how British behave when they got stuck amidst of them!
Frank Petrexa
Tribune
There is a book called Inside the Soviet Army from the last days of the Cold War. Apparently they tried to mobilize to send troops into Eastern Europe (Poland if I remember) to squelch the popular resistance movements. One reserve officer slept in his vehicle with a pistol because, "These people now have weapons." Apparently things were so disorganized they never left Russia.
There is a book called "365 Days" (the length of a tour) by a hospital office during the Vietnam War. Each chapter was a different case. One involved a colonel who had just taken over a unit. He instituted aggressive patrolling, people stopped playing radios on patrol, got serious, because there was real combat. "The North Vietnamese pulled back because they had to." One day someone rolled a fragmentation grenade into his tent, and he died on the evacuation helicopter pad. This kind of thing is always an issue.
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Hugin&Munin
Presenter Of Images
Today is a not so nice anniversary, on January 31, 1933 Adolf Hitler took power in Germany.
Here is the translation of an article about the humble "leader" who was not at all interested in money.
Industrious and modest – this is how Adolf Hitler presented himself to the Germans. But behind the facade, the "Fuhrer" was a very rich man. That's how the Nazi got his millions.
"Like in a fairy tale!" Joseph Goebbels enthused in his diary. "Hitler is Chancellor". However, what happened on January 30, 1933 in Berlin was less a "fairy tale" than a nightmare. Adolf Hitler, the "leader" of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, had reached his goal - soon he set about establishing his dictatorship.
Hitler presented himself to the Germans as a modest man, as a head of state who put his life in the service of the "people" without any major personal claims. Money? Assets? Rather non-existent with Hitler, at least that's what it seemed.
This also fits with a report from the party newspaper "Völkischer Beobachter" from February 1933, according to which the "Führer" as "Reich Chancellor" does not receive a salary, "since he earns his own income as a writer." A noble gesture at a time when Germany was still suffering from the effects of the global economic crisis? Hardly likely.
Best-selling author Hitler
As early as 1934, Hitler no longer wanted anything to do with this reticence when it came to money – and henceforth cashed in on his salary as Reich Chancellor. And not only this one. When the aged head of state Paul von Hindenburg died in early 1934, Hitler immediately assumed the powers of the Reich President. In addition, his salary and expense allowance, as the historian Volker Ullrich writes in his biography of the "Führer". In addition to the Chancellor's annual salary of around 29,000 Reichsmark plus 18,000 Reichsmark expense allowance, of course.
For Hitler, however, these amounts were just "peanuts". The really big money flowed into his pocket from other sources for a long time, but especially after he took power in January 1933. And actually, as reported in the "Völkischer Beobachter", through his work as a "writer". "Mein Kampf", Hitler's pamphlet published in two volumes during the 1920s, became a bestseller over time.
Especially after couples who tied the knot were treated to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" at the wedding by the registry office. The royalties due to the dictator just shot up. Hitler also received vast sums of money from another source: the Reichspost. The likeness of the despot "decorated" postage stamps, and from 1937 Hitler took a certain percentage of the proceeds. Year after year, million after million.
Here is the translation of an article about the humble "leader" who was not at all interested in money.
Industrious and modest – this is how Adolf Hitler presented himself to the Germans. But behind the facade, the "Fuhrer" was a very rich man. That's how the Nazi got his millions.
"Like in a fairy tale!" Joseph Goebbels enthused in his diary. "Hitler is Chancellor". However, what happened on January 30, 1933 in Berlin was less a "fairy tale" than a nightmare. Adolf Hitler, the "leader" of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, had reached his goal - soon he set about establishing his dictatorship.
Hitler presented himself to the Germans as a modest man, as a head of state who put his life in the service of the "people" without any major personal claims. Money? Assets? Rather non-existent with Hitler, at least that's what it seemed.
This also fits with a report from the party newspaper "Völkischer Beobachter" from February 1933, according to which the "Führer" as "Reich Chancellor" does not receive a salary, "since he earns his own income as a writer." A noble gesture at a time when Germany was still suffering from the effects of the global economic crisis? Hardly likely.
Best-selling author Hitler
As early as 1934, Hitler no longer wanted anything to do with this reticence when it came to money – and henceforth cashed in on his salary as Reich Chancellor. And not only this one. When the aged head of state Paul von Hindenburg died in early 1934, Hitler immediately assumed the powers of the Reich President. In addition, his salary and expense allowance, as the historian Volker Ullrich writes in his biography of the "Führer". In addition to the Chancellor's annual salary of around 29,000 Reichsmark plus 18,000 Reichsmark expense allowance, of course.
For Hitler, however, these amounts were just "peanuts". The really big money flowed into his pocket from other sources for a long time, but especially after he took power in January 1933. And actually, as reported in the "Völkischer Beobachter", through his work as a "writer". "Mein Kampf", Hitler's pamphlet published in two volumes during the 1920s, became a bestseller over time.
Especially after couples who tied the knot were treated to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" at the wedding by the registry office. The royalties due to the dictator just shot up. Hitler also received vast sums of money from another source: the Reichspost. The likeness of the despot "decorated" postage stamps, and from 1937 Hitler took a certain percentage of the proceeds. Year after year, million after million.
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Seventy years ago : the disastrous 1953 North Sea Flood.
During Saturday 31st of January 1953, a heavy storm broke out north of the British Isles. It would become the worst storm of the 20th century in the England and Scotland. Tens of people were killed when coastal defences were destroyed. At sea, the ferry MS Princess Victoria, underway from Stranraer to Larne, got stuck in a severe storm in the North Channel. Water rushed in trough the damaged stern doors of the ro-ro ferry, attempts to reach port failed and the ship sunk with 131 casualties. More ships came into trouble and sank.
Blowing from the northwest, and coinciding with rising tide and springtide, straight into the funnel that the North Sea basin is, a critical combination for disaster on the Low Land’s coasts was meanwhile set.
In the evening of January 31st, at low tide, water levels on the Dutch coast stood already as high as on an average high tide. Warnings were issued, but then, the communications went down, because at the time there were no more radio broadcasts after midnight, and the still manually operated telephone exchanges were unmanned during nighttime. As a result, there was no more information towards the population during the critical hours of the storm. The gale struck at full force into the estuaries around 4-6 a.m., rupturing the dikes, unprepared to withstand such a flood. Lands and villages were flooded, numerous cattle died, and hundreds of people were killed.
To makes things worse, in the first hours after the flood, no one outside the disaster area realized what had happened, and no rescue came. On the afternoon of Sunday 1st February, flood tide came up again, destroying more homes, already damaged during the night, and an estimated same amount of people as during the early morning flood, trapped on roofs and upper floors of their house, perished. Only after a report from a helicopter of the Belgian Air Force that had flown into the area, the extent of the disaster became clear and rescue was organized.
A total of 1835 lives were lost in the storm. To prevent such disasters in the future, The Netherlands started the Delta works. These included building higher and stronger dikes, but also closing the estuaries by means of huge dams. These estuaries hence transformed from marine tidal channels into freshwater lakes. When the last big closure had to be undertaken, the Eastern Scheldt estuary, environmental concerns had risen about the impact on the marine ecology. Instead of a dam, a sluice gate construction was built, allowing marine tide into the estuary. The gates are closed in case of flood risk, what happened already some 25 times since its inauguration in 1986.
With the completion of a movable barrier in the access to the Rotterdam port (1997), only the Western Scheldt, the maritime access to the ports of Ghent and Antwerp, is still a fully open estuary.
During Saturday 31st of January 1953, a heavy storm broke out north of the British Isles. It would become the worst storm of the 20th century in the England and Scotland. Tens of people were killed when coastal defences were destroyed. At sea, the ferry MS Princess Victoria, underway from Stranraer to Larne, got stuck in a severe storm in the North Channel. Water rushed in trough the damaged stern doors of the ro-ro ferry, attempts to reach port failed and the ship sunk with 131 casualties. More ships came into trouble and sank.
Blowing from the northwest, and coinciding with rising tide and springtide, straight into the funnel that the North Sea basin is, a critical combination for disaster on the Low Land’s coasts was meanwhile set.
In the evening of January 31st, at low tide, water levels on the Dutch coast stood already as high as on an average high tide. Warnings were issued, but then, the communications went down, because at the time there were no more radio broadcasts after midnight, and the still manually operated telephone exchanges were unmanned during nighttime. As a result, there was no more information towards the population during the critical hours of the storm. The gale struck at full force into the estuaries around 4-6 a.m., rupturing the dikes, unprepared to withstand such a flood. Lands and villages were flooded, numerous cattle died, and hundreds of people were killed.
To makes things worse, in the first hours after the flood, no one outside the disaster area realized what had happened, and no rescue came. On the afternoon of Sunday 1st February, flood tide came up again, destroying more homes, already damaged during the night, and an estimated same amount of people as during the early morning flood, trapped on roofs and upper floors of their house, perished. Only after a report from a helicopter of the Belgian Air Force that had flown into the area, the extent of the disaster became clear and rescue was organized.
A total of 1835 lives were lost in the storm. To prevent such disasters in the future, The Netherlands started the Delta works. These included building higher and stronger dikes, but also closing the estuaries by means of huge dams. These estuaries hence transformed from marine tidal channels into freshwater lakes. When the last big closure had to be undertaken, the Eastern Scheldt estuary, environmental concerns had risen about the impact on the marine ecology. Instead of a dam, a sluice gate construction was built, allowing marine tide into the estuary. The gates are closed in case of flood risk, what happened already some 25 times since its inauguration in 1986.
With the completion of a movable barrier in the access to the Rotterdam port (1997), only the Western Scheldt, the maritime access to the ports of Ghent and Antwerp, is still a fully open estuary.
wulf
God-Emperor
Under his leadership the "Thousand Year Reich" lasted only 12, fortunately.
Hugin&Munin
Presenter Of Images
Yes, exactly 12 years, 3 months, 9 days
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Exactly ten years later, on January 31st 1943, Colonel-General Friedrich Paulus was woken up in Stalingrad, to receive a dispatch from Berlin, promoting him to Field Marshall. A few minutes later, his headquarters was taken by the red Army, marking the end of the battle, and the defeat of the 6th Army.