Lichtenstein be like “they’re invading, but whatever.”
But how do you “accidentally” invade a country?
On 5 December 1985, rockets fired by the Swiss Army landed in Liechtenstein, causing a forest fire. Compensation was paid.
On 13 October 1992, following written orders, Swiss Army cadets unknowingly crossed the border and went to Triesenberg to set up an observation post. Swiss commanders had overlooked the fact that Triesenberg was not on Swiss territory. Switzerland apologized to Liechtenstein for the incident.
In March 2007, a company of 171 Swiss soldiers mistakenly entered Liechtenstein, after taking a wrong turn in the darkness. The troops returned to Swiss territory before they had travelled more than 2 km into the country. The Liechtenstein authorities did not discover the “invaders”, and were informed by the Swiss after the incident. The incident was disregarded by both sides. A Liechtenstein spokesman said “It’s not like they invaded with attack helicopters”
how do you even tell your superior officer I mean “uh Sir… I’m sorry but I think… we’re not in Switzerland anymore” “what are you trying to say cadet” “Sir I think we invaded Liechtenstein.” “…goddamn it, not again.”
And remember the time when the army of Liechtenstein went to war with 80 people and returned home with 81 because they made a friend?
Games often overestimate how much a sword or an axe weighs, and the assumption that many people make is that this lump of steel in your hand is a great burden, although this assumption has been working is way out.
The simple fact of the matter is, medieval weapons are quite light.
The medieval Arming Sword, the single most common sword of the middle ages. One handed, ext to carry, you wouldn’t expect this one to be that heavy, and it isn’t. Arming Swords tend to weigh between 3 and 4 pounds / 1⅓ and 1.8kg, that’s it! This particular example weighs 3 lbs. 11 oz / 1.6kg.
The Longsword, a much longer weapon than the Arming Sword, as the name implies, and obviously much heavier. But it’s not.
Standard Longswords, especially later period ones designed more for thrusting (like the one pictured above,) can be shockingly light. They can weigh in the same range as arming swords, although they can weigh more as well.
Longswords tend to sit between 3 and 5 pounds / 1⅓ and 2.25kg, and this example is 3 lbs. 7oz. / 1.5kg meaning it weighs less than the Arming Sword pictured before!
The Rapier, a famously light and nimble weapon that is also clouded in a fog of incorrect assumptions. The rapier is a long weapon. This example measures 45 inches in the blade and isn’t even among the longest I’ve seen.
Including all that weight from the steel basket around your hand, and it starts to add up. Rapiers can however be quite light, so including the extremes of the spectrum you end up with a range of between 2.5 pounds and 5 pounds / 1.1 and 2.25kg. This particular example is on the lighter side, weighing 2 lbs. 13 oz / 1.3kg.
The Zweihander, the famous greatsword, surely this is a much heavier weapons! Well of course it’s heavier than the others, the entire thing is five and a half feet tall, however they are deceptively light.
Zweihander weigh, on average, 6 pounds / 2.7kg. That’s it, only 6 pounds. Some on the heavier side weigh about 7lbs / 3.1kg, but they rarely exceed that. This example weighs 6 lbs. 2 oz. / 2.8kg.
Moving away from swords, axes will surely be heavier, won’t they? Think again.
There is an important distinction between battle axes and wood cutting axes. Battle Axe heads tend to be thin, very thin, good for cutting flesh and bone, and easier to wield. Wood cutting heads are wider so as to be more robust, and split wood open more efficiently, and let’s not even talk about splitting mauls.
As such, one handed battle aces like this tend only to weigh between 1 and 4 pounds / 0.45 and 1.8kg. They can be very very light! The example is 1 lb. 7 oz. / 0.65kg.
Warhammer even tend to stick to that same range, between 1 and 4 pounds / 0.45 and 1.80. This example is 2 lbs. 8 oz / 1.15kg.
It’s only once you reach polearms that you begin getting heavier weights. The weights of a polearm is greatly changed by the length of it’s shaft, which can vary greatly, so these numbers will be somewhat more flexible.
Spears tend to be the lightest polearms, often weighing between 3 and 6 pounds / 1.⅓ and 2.7kg, with this example coming in at 4 lbs. even / 1.8kg.
Poleaxes, tending to be on the shorter end of polearms, also tend to be lighter. Interestingly, the examples I’ve seen are quite consistent, and all weigh between 6 and 7 pounds / 2.7 and 3.175kg, though greater variation is possible. This example weighs 6 lbs. 9 oz / 3kg.
Halberds tend to be even heavier, though examples in museums tend to have hafts that are too short simply for storage and display purposes.
As such, the weights tend to be somewhat off, however we know from period sources and good modern reproductions that properly sized balberds tend to be about 8 pounds. This museum piece fits the “too light” mould, and weighs 5 lbs. 10 oz / 2.5kg.
For the purposes of giving you (the reader) a proper appreciation of what the pike is, I elected to not use a museum photo for this one, so you can see their full scale.
The pike is a massive weapon, and these piles being used by reenactors in this photo are quite short. On the shorter end, they measured over 10 feet / 3m in length, and on the lookout get end occasionally hit 30 feet / 9.1m !
These could be the heaviest melee weapons typically used in medieval/renaissance warfare, and even these only weigh between 5 and 13 pounds / 2.25 and 5.9kg.
With your heaviest weapons only weighing 13 pounds at their most extreme, this paints a good picture of how light these hand weapons tended to be. Something for RPG and video game developers to keep in mind in the future.
– mod Armet
So what you’re telling me is that virtually every medieval weapon is out weighed by my CAT?
‘Queer’ was reclaimed as an umbrella term for people identifying as not-heterosexual and/or not-cisgender in the early 1980s, but being queer is more than just being non-straight/non-cis; it’s a political and ideological statement, a label asserting an identity distinct from gay and/or traditional gender identities.
People identifying as queer are typically not cis gays or cis lesbians, but bi, pan, ace, trans, nonbinary, intersex, etc.: we’re the silent/ced letters. We’re the marginalised majority within the LGBTQIA+ community, and
‘queer’ is our rallying cry.
And that’s equally pissing off and terrifying terfs and cis LGs.
There’s absolutely no historical or sociolinguistic reason why ‘queer’ should be a worse slur than ‘gay.’ Remember how we had all those campaigns to make people stop using ‘gay’ as a synonym for ‘bad’?
Yet nobody is suggesting we should abolish ‘gay’ as a label. We accept that even though ‘gay’ sometimes is and historically frequently was used in a derogatory manner, mlm individuals have the right to use that word. We have ad campaigns, twitter hashtags, and viral Facebook posts defending ‘gay’ as an identity label and asking people to stop using it as a slur.
Whereas ‘queer’ is treated exactly opposite: a small but vocal group of people within feminist and LGBTQIA+ circles insists that it’s a slur and demands that others to stop using it as a personal, self-chosen identity label.
Why?
Because “queer is a slur” was invented by terfs specifically to exclude trans, nonbinary, and
intersex people from feminist and non-heterosexual discourse, and was
subsequently adopted by cis gays and cis lesbians to exclude bi/pan and ace
people.
It’s classic divide-and-conquer tactics: when our umbrella term is redefined as a slur and we’re harassed into silence for using it, we no longer have a word for what we are allowing us to organise for social/political/economic support; we are denied the opportunity to influence or shape the spaces we inhabit; we can’t challenge existing community power structures; we’re erased from our own history.
Pro tip: when you alter historical evidence to deny a marginalised group empowerment, you’re one of the bad guys.
“Queer is a slur” is used by terfs and cis gays/lesbians to silence the voices of trans/nonbinary/intersex/bi/pan/ace people in society and even within our own communities, to isolate us and shame us for existing.
“Queer is a slur” is saying “I am offended by people who do not conform to traditional gender or sexual identities because they are not sexually available to me or validate my personal identity.”
“Queer is a slur” is defending heteronormativity.
“Queer is a slur” is frankly embarrassing. It’s an admission of ignorance and prejudice. It’s an insidious discriminatory discourse parroted uncritically in support of a divisive us-vs-them mentality targeting the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQIA+ community for lack of courage to confront the white cis straight men who pose an actual danger to us as individuals and as a community.
Tl;dr:
I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m too old for this shit.
I know I keep reblogging posts like this, but it matters to me. “Queer is a slur” is a TERF dogwhistle, and a lot of the younger generation is falling for it. Please pay attention to history and ask questions about who’s behind social media campaigns that undermine the inclusivity of your community.
Queer is an excellent word, especially when your identity doesn’t fit neatly within one little label. Queer is also an explicit rejection of normative expectations sexuality and gender. It’s radical as fuck.
It’s true! And not just in Egypt, it’s recorded as a standard burglar technique in 12th century Persia. So much so that catching a fellow in the middle of the night carrying a crowbar and a drill wouldn’t necessarily prove anything, but if he also had a live tortoise with him, well it could only be a professional burglar.
“The tortoise is employed thus. The burglar has with him a
flint-stone and a candle about as big as a little finger. He lights the
candle and sticks it on the tortoise’s back. The tortoise is then
introduced through the breach into the house, and it crawls slowly
around, thereby illuminating the house and its contents.”
We should be more pro-active or we’ll see more of such sad fates of honest people.
And the utterly ironic thing is I’ve seen repeated tumblr posts of that iconic photo absolutely slagging the shit out of Peter Norman as “lol white guy so uncomfortable” “Why the fuck isn’t he supporting them”, etc etc.
As an Australian this post surprised me. I knew none of the above.
Before Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, there was the Demon Core.
The Demon Core was a 6.2-kilogram subcritical mass of plutonium, which briefly went critical in two separate accidents at Los Alamos National Lab in 1945 and 1946. Each incident resulted in acute radiation poisoning and the subsequent death of a scientist. After the incidents, the spherical plutonium pit was dubbed the Demon Core.
On 21 August 1945, the plutonium core produced a burst of radiation that led to death of physicist Harry Daghlian. Daghlian was working alone, performing neutron reflection experiments on the core. The core was placed within a stack of neutron-reflective tungsten carbide bricks, and the addition each brick pushed the core closer to going critical. Daghlian was attempting to stack another brick on the pile when he dropped it on the core by accident. Despite his quick action to pull the brick off the assembly, Daghlian received a fatal dose of radiation and died 25 days later.
On 21 May 1946, physicist Louis Slotin and several others were conducting an experiment to verify the exact point at which a subcritical mass could be made critical by positioning neutron reflectors. It required the operator to place two half-spheres of beryllium, a neutron reflector, around the core to be tested and manually lower the top reflector over the core. Scintillation counters measured the relative activity from the core as the reflectors were moved closer and farther away from each other. The blade of a standard flathead screwdriver was necessary to keep the reflectors from closing completely around the core because it could result in instantaneous formation of a critical mass and a lethal power excursion. While lowering the top sphere, Slotin’s screwdriver slipped outward a fraction of an inch, and that was all that was needed for the top reflector to fall into place around the core. Instantly there was a flash of bright blue light and a wave of heat passed over Slotin’s skin; the mass had become supercritical, releasing a massive burst of neutron radiation. Slotin quickly knocked the two halves apart, stopping the chain reaction and saving the lives of his colleagues. He received a lethal dose of radiation and died 9 days later.
“In 2000, Virginia legislators got involved, asking Governor Jesse Ventura to return their captured icon.
‘Why?’ he asked. ‘We won.’”
LMAAAAO
All the salty racists in the comments are a cherry on top.
Die mad about it energy strong af
Okay but this is a story that @dadhoc loves to talk about because this is a REALLY BIG DEAL in Minnesota.
I have heard the story of The First Minnesota at LEAST ONE HUNDRED TIMES in the course of my marriage and now I GET TO TELL THE REST OF YOU.
So. It’s not just ANY Confederate flag. It is the Confederate flag that the First Minnesota captured on July 3rd, 1863. The First Minnesota prevented the Union line from crumbling by keeping the Federalists from being pushed off of Cemetery Ridge on July 2nd, and on July 2nd, the First Minnesota sustained 82% casualties.
EIGHTY-TWO PERCENT CASUALTIES. They started out as 262 men and ended as 47. But they held the line. They held. The. Line. Then on July 3rd they were placed in one of the few places where the line was breached, and they thus had to charge in again and retake the line breaches, and they did.
It was during one of these charges – remember, they’d already lost eighty-two percent of their friends – that Private Marshall Sherman of Company C captured the flag. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this.
The survivors of the First Minnesota at Gettysburg served through the rest of the war.
Now, Virginians have asked for it back repeatedly, saying ‘it’s our heritage.’ But the response from the Minnesota Historical Society has basically been, as @dadhoc has summed it up, “to us, this is the legacy of 215 men who were killed or wounded in the preservation of the Union. What, exactly, is its legacy to you?”
No one’s been able to give an answer that isn’t ‘it’s our legacy of trying to destroy the US over slavery,’ because there isn’t one.
Fuck Virginia wanting that flag back, it belongs in Minnesota.
As someone who grew up in Gettysburg, I feel like I missed out on not knowing this story and now I need to pay my respects to these men next time I visit my mom. This is entirely amazing and I love it.
@dadhoc yells about this piece of their state’s history ALL THE TIME. It’s one of those pieces of history that should be talked about more because the fact that the First Minnesota held the line on the 2nd where they did is one of those “for want of a nail” moments, where if that specific spot in the line had broken, Gettysburg, and thus the war, would have gone VERY differently.
The flag was on display for a long time and IIRC it only isn’t now because of its condition. HOWEVER if any of my followers who live in MN want to go see the actual flag of the First Minnesota, IIRC it’s in the State House rotunda. (I told you, @dadhoc talks about this A LOT.)
Okay but this image from the Reddit thread linked above:
Have you read “Brave New World”? The author of that book, Aldous Leonard
Huxley, was born on this date in 1894 in Godalming, Surrey, England.
Huxley came to the United States via New York on the ship SS
Normandie in 1937 and settled in Los Angeles.
In 1955, Huxley, known for being a humanist and a pacifist, was planning
to become a naturalized citizen of the United States; however, on the petition
he wrote “no” to the statements agreeing to bear arms or serve in the Armed
Forces in a noncombatant role if required.
Therefore, the naturalization proceedings were adjourned and Huxley
withdrew his petition.
In our holdings, we have his petition for naturalization
(pictured here), even though he did not become a citizen, along with the
withdrawal form.
Huxley authored many novels, providing many
thought-provoking quotes, and here is one of them: “There are things known and there are things
unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”
