Weekend Open Thread

Cong of the Rats, CW, WoT FIRST

Did you know …

… a Soviet leader really believed in purges? When Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) held one of his occasional purges of members of the Communist party leadership, he went to great lengths to ensure that person was gone. He would have their names removed from any historical documents, and would even go so far as to have the person airbrushed out of any official photographs. Stalin wanted no record to remain of the person he would “un-person.” (Gives a new meaning to the old saw, “Here today, gone tomorrow.”)

… schoolwork was real in the Harry Potter series of movies? According to set insiders, when the main actors in the films – Daniel Radcliff (born 1989), Emma Watson (born 1990), and Rupert Grint (born 1988) – were shown doing their “homework” for Hogwarts School for Wizards, they were sometimes actually doing their real-world school homework. (Hope their grades were good.)

… the Earth’s rotation is slowing down? No, you won’t be late (or early) for any appointments because of that, not any time soon. But if you can hang around another, say, 140 million years, you’ll discover that a day will be 25 hours long. Earth’s rotation has slowed over the eons; during the time when dinosaurs ruled the planet, a day was only about 22 hours long. (Now I understand why some days drag on longer than others.)

… a law in Chicago once made it illegal for “ugly” people to be in public? Passed in 1881 in an attempt to eradicate beggars from the public streets, the law prohibited people “who are diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed” from appearing in any public places. Violators of the law faced fines between $1 and $50, and were sometimes sent out of town. Shockingly, the law stayed on the books until the 1970s. (There are times when I’m ashamed to call Chicago my home town. This is one of them.)

… a company tried to create a device that would translate a dog’s thoughts into English? The Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery, or NSID, advertised in 2013 that they were trying to invent a device which would be attached to a dog and would translate the dog’s brain waves into English. Called “No More Woof,” they claimed the device would be available by May of 2014 and opened a crowdfunding source for it. The gadget was to be worn on the dog’s head, and would detect neural patterns that corresponded to “I’m hungry,” or “I’m tired,” or “Who are you?” The device wasn’t ready by May of 2014 and isn’t ready today … and investors are finally getting their money back. A spokesman for NSID said that “No More Woof” was a real thing, but that the real difficulty in developing the device is simple – it’s hard to get a dog to allow you to stick something on its head. (I’d really be dogged if I tried to make a joke on this one.)

… Charles Darwin ate an example of every animal he “discovered”? Darwin (1809-1882), the scientist who formulated the Theory of Evolution, was quite the gourmand when it came to newly discovered life. He was a member of the Glutton Club at Cambridge University, a group devoted to “devouring birds and beasts which were before unknown to human palates.” During his voyages on HMS Beagle, Darwin ate: puma, iguana, armadillo, giant tortoise, agouti, rhea, and many other species that normally don’t make it to a human’s dinner table. (Suddenly, I’m hungry …)

Abe Lincoln was born 12 February 1809.

George Washington was born 22 February 1732.

William Henry Harrison was born 9 February 1773.

Ronald Reagan was born 6 February 1911.

So, my own thoughts on Operation Ten-Go: Even if the Americans somehow decided to not sink the Yamato and allowed her to continue to Okinawa, I think the plan would’ve still failed. First, the Yamato wasn’t designed to be beached. That wasn’t it’s intended purpose. This smacks of a plan that was thought up in pure desperation. Second, you would need to get close to the shore without striking an underwater rock (Paging Captain Schettino. Captain Francesco ‘Vada a bordo, cazzo!’ Schettino.) and sinking in the shallow water. Third, even if you did manage to avoid hitting a rock, due to the ships gargantuan size, the helmsman would’ve had the impossible task of maneuvering the ship 100% right to make sure she didn’t list at an angle where she couldn’t fire. Finally, if you somehow managed all that, the guns firing would likely undo all of hard work the helmsman did up to that point (good thing she sank before he would have to do that. Though he might’ve gone down with the ship. In which case, kinda-sorta poor bastard.). That massive amount of force generated by the recoil of those massive guns would’ve had to go somewhere, and seeing how the ship is on a sandbed and not in the water, the Yamato would probably have had less than an hour of shooting time before she’d list at an angle where she couldn’t fire anyway. And that’s assuming the Americans didn’t throw everything they had to silence those guns, maybe causing it to explode like it did in real life from her powder magazine igniting. Anyway, here’s the video of the legendary ship with an unimpressive service history (videogame ad runs from 0:34-1:06):

So, I wanted to do two videos so I can keep to my self-imposed deadline of ending the Potential History series next week. But work has been crazy again, I got sick, and put out a lot of text on this one topic alone, geeking out over the Yamato (or rather how terrible she was), that I think it would be better to just do one video this time around. I will get to the end of his series eventually though. Let me know if any of my input on this topic is wrong or requires tweaking. I care more about being factual than right. Have a great weekend.

Yeah, jam on some Phish instead!

I won’t do that.