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| bio | website | |
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| location | ||
| age | ||
| visits | member for | 1 year, 5 months |
| seen | 10 mins ago | |
| stats | profile views | 25 |
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Dec 12 |
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Wiliam Wallace vs. Robert Bruce: Why Did One Win and One Lose? @spiceyokooko - yes there comes a point where it's so wet that bows are useless (Scotland in summer) but I don't think it would be impossible for archers to keep a bow functioning for the short time needed to expand all their arrows in typical volley. The point (somewhat off topic now) is that a sinew bow fails to work most of the time anywhere north of the alps. |
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Dec 12 |
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Wiliam Wallace vs. Robert Bruce: Why Did One Win and One Lose? @spiceyokooko - compound bows are more efficient mechanically but Yew bows still work when the wood is cold and wet. It's easier to keep the replaceable string dry than an entire bow. |
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Dec 12 |
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Why is Christopher Columbus credited for “discovering” America? @Lohoris - for most of the middle ages it competed with Venice as a naval/trading city. So it produced lots of adventuress citizens who knew about sailing and navigating. |
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Dec 12 |
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Was the Titanic tragedy at least partly avoidable? @quant_dev - yes the incident was a fiasco. Party because nobody expected such a sinking to be survivable and so there was no training,plan or drills. I was just making a point that it wasn't as if we only made business class in a 747 crash proof! |
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Dec 12 |
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Was the Titanic tragedy at least partly avoidable? The historical value of the Titanic is that so many people survived and so lots of stories were told about the event. In the century before ships just didn't arrive - nobody knew what had happened. So there wasn't a focus on accidents/safety/lifeboat drills that we have now. This isn't as odd as you think - even into the 1960s most cars (except Volvo) weren't designed/sold with any safety consideration - it was assumed that in a crash you would die. In 20years we will be shocked that people flew in aircraft that didn't have smokehoods, fire suppression systems and backup remote control. |
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Dec 12 |
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How would you accurately use older British currencies? "The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated" T Pratchett |
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Dec 12 |
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Why did Ford pardon Nixon? Since that was a political announcement by his successor we can be sure that the above is definitively NOT the reason |
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Dec 10 |
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Why was the Irish War of Independence in 1918 successful when other revolts failed? @FelixGoldberg - there were minor violent revolts which were put down. But the posters claim that Britain was unable to face the challenge, post WWI, of subduing 3million Irish - while keeping 600 million Indians half a continent away under control is a bit of stretch. |
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Dec 9 |
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Why did the kingdoms of Scotland and England merge? It's latitude dependent: Either because Scotland was bust and desperate, or England was a big nasty bully |
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Dec 3 |
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Why were ancient cities protected by walls? @DjangoReinhardt - medieval farming was more subsistence so a lot more varied than modern monolithic fields of wheat with two harvests a year. So there would be peas, beans vegetables as well as cattle pasture. Most of this is worth gathering at any time. But the important part is to deny any sort of food or fodder to the invaders. |
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Dec 3 |
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Why were ancient cities protected by walls? @DjangoReinhardt - you would harvest what crops you could and burn everything else - especially anything that could feed horses. A medieval army has 1000s of valuable horse requiring tons of fodder, if the knight can't feed his horse (his own valuable property) he isn't going to stay. |
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Dec 2 |
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Why were ancient cities protected by walls? Remember (before c1500)the person that owns the farm is the lord in the castle. The peasants working them are little more than slaves - you can always import new peasants after the attackers left. |
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Nov 17 |
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What other countries besides the US participated in keeping African slaves? @luke see link in the comment - will edit the answer |
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Oct 4 |
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Which arm was the shield held in? @T.E.D. the spiral stairs in castles curled up clockwise so that right handed defenders (coming down) have an advantage over right handed attackers (going up). So a left handed attacker would have an advantage |
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Sep 27 |
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Can Bill Clinton run for president of France? @T.E.D. - But only one intern - I don't think that qualifies him to even be a local councilor in Italy |
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Sep 27 |
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Can Bill Clinton run for president of France? I think since he denied having an affair he probably fails some French presidential law on gross moral turpitude - or at least gross discourtesy to a women. |
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Sep 24 |
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What surface area per person is required for hunter-gatherers? persquaremile.com/2011/08/05/… |
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Sep 18 |
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Why is Spain's base timezone UTC+1? Although Franco's Spain wasn't an official ally of Nazi Germany they were BFFs |
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Sep 15 |
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What was with the “poofy” pants found in various military uniforms? @Anixx - as a possible experiment - go into a bar in London, find someone with lively cheerful clothes like a football strip and tell them they look gay. |
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Aug 26 |
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Why did Mozambique join the British Commonwealth? Especially strange when you consider the huge political influence that Mozambique otherwise had on the world stage |
