meta user
network profile
| bio | website | |
|---|---|---|
| location | ||
| age | ||
| visits | member for | 1 year, 5 months |
| seen | May 12 at 19:13 | |
| stats | profile views | 25 |
|
May 1 |
comment |
History of scientific regression I wouldn't say the roman arch was lost - it was used continually and unchanged until the superior gothic arch was invented. |
|
Apr 29 |
comment |
When did navies stop giving out a drink ration to their sailors? I'm not sure alcohol was ever to make up for the conditions - it was more that it was a storable and safe alternative to water |
|
Apr 26 |
comment |
What can be considered to be the single most important reason for the decline of muslim Golden Age? Also most of the Islamic golden age was driven by Persians - so although the Abbasid empire stretched to Spain - the cultural elite were very focused on Baghdad. |
|
Apr 22 |
comment |
Why are the democracies of France, Israel and India rated “Flawed Democracies”? Remember the EIU is owned by the economist newspaper and isn't exactly politically neutral. So France's low score on functioning government might be from the point of view of a foreign investment bank rather than a French citizen. |
|
Apr 18 |
comment |
What calendar was used by the kingdom of Ireland? The kingdom of Ireland was still run from Britain, catholics were excluded from any official office and certainly weren't in charge of making any decisions about calenders. Remember that date/time was vital for navigation and so was controlled by naval observatories with the same sort of military security that GPS has today. Any written history, court proceedings, laws, etc will almost certainly be written using British standards |
|
Apr 18 |
comment |
Why did Canada, Australia and New Zealand separate from UK? @Saqib - yes, the "we can't" was imagining the thinking inside the govt at the time, rather than I/we the writer |
|
Apr 18 |
comment |
Why Canada failed to emerge as a power like UK or France? @sid - see history.stackexchange.com/questions/1785/… |
|
Apr 17 |
comment |
Why didn't Russia help Saddam Hussein as it is helping Syria now? @TED I'm sure the navy loves having a presence in the eastern med, but GASPROM would rather have the contracts to replace all those Gaddafi supporting western oil in Libya. It's a question of who has more influence in Moscow. |
|
Apr 17 |
comment |
Why didn't Russia help Saddam Hussein as it is helping Syria now? @BrotherJack, I don't think Russia had any deep commitment to Syria other than as bargaining chip. Isreal has a more domestic political link to the US than a purely regional strategic resource. Whereas Russia+Serbia is more like America's attitude to a central american ally |
|
Apr 17 |
comment |
Why Napoleon was not executed or imprisoned? @Anixx, their position that recognising him as Emperor and installing him on an easily accesble island close by might be a mistake was shown to be pretty accurate in 1815! So dumping him on an island in the middle of the ocean with no rank or pirvilige to be forgotten about seems like a smart solution |
|
Apr 17 |
comment |
Why didn't Russia help Saddam Hussein as it is helping Syria now? saqib - sorry accidentally edited the Q - will be reverted in a few mins |
|
Apr 17 |
comment |
Have any politicians been known to make a habit of answering questions precisely? The former British labour party leader Neil Kinnock might have, but nobody was ever able to get to the end of one of his sentences to find out. |
|
Apr 16 |
comment |
Military intervention in government in India and Pakistan @kartshan - yes you can have a law that says the army can't use it's tanks to overthrow the government. Trouble is who will enforce it? But history and law do make a difference - it's easier for a country that has been relatively peaceful to separate state/army than one which was essentially born in a war and continues to fight to survive. If the army has always been used to running things in an emergency there is more acceptance of them running things all the time. |
|
Apr 16 |
comment |
Military intervention in government in India and Pakistan @kartshan - the written constitution of a country and what actually happens in it's politics - especially if it's a pawn in the British Empire/Cold war/War on terror - aren't always correlated. |
|
Apr 14 |
comment |
Language of Franks vs later French Interestingly though the anglo-saxon 'invasion' is now thought to have been a very small group of people (possibly similar to the 5% franks) and yet replaced the earlier celtic/byronic languages pretty completely |
|
Apr 12 |
comment |
Economic effects of the Cuban Revolution Always hard to ask 'what might have happened'. An alternative might be to compare it with nearby countries with a similar area/climate/resources - like Haiti |
|
Apr 12 |
comment |
Why did the Moors invade the Iberian peninsula? @BrotherJack - yes that was my point, that there are lots of interacting reasons - not just jizayh tax or to spread Islam or to conquer Europe. Same as any war really |
|
Apr 12 |
comment |
Why Napoleon was not executed or imprisoned? @Anixx - although there probably was a political element of not making a martyr I think there really was still a feeling that it would be dishonourable to execute the loser. Or at least a loser from a proper civilized country that fought by the rules with a proper army. Even at the end of WWI the same attitude applied |
|
Apr 9 |
comment |
Why did the Moors invade the Iberian peninsula? @BrotherJack - yes the point was we think it was special because it was invading europe, but that didn't necessarily mean much to the invaders. Whether they thought that Spain was anything different from spreading across N Africa would be interesting |
|
Apr 8 |
comment |
In current times is it impossible to win a war if the people of invaded country are determined not to lose? @MichaelF - you will if you are prepared to remove the enemy population totally. |
