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| bio | website | |
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| visits | member for | 1 year |
| seen | 2 hours ago | |
| stats | profile views | 21 |
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Sep 18 |
revised |
When did wheel-mounted water-carrying fire-fighting machines first appear in Japan? Corrected link. |
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Sep 7 |
comment |
Which arm was the shield held in? Remember, dueling is not combat, fencing is not baseball. Close-formation infantry wins battles, and if there's a tradition of left-hand weapons training before the modern day, it's not recorded. |
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Sep 7 |
comment |
Which arm was the shield held in? Thus the prejudice against left-handers which only ended very recently. My dad recalls an elementary school classmate where the teacher tied his left arm to the chair to force him to use the right hand to write. Natural lefties were a liability in massed hand-to-hand combat - you couldn't predict where and how someone else in the line would be swinging their sword or holding their shield, and fencing instructors had no experience to draw from in training lefties to attack or defend. |
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Aug 19 |
comment |
When and why China started to make a difference in the superpower arena? I'm not certain they can be considered a super-power. The Soviets could, if required, take the fight to the USA, and overrun the traditional powers of Western Europe - Germany, France, Italy, Brittain, Scandanavia, the Low Countries, the lot, and utterly dominated Eastern Europe and central Asia. It's not certain China could defend itself from Japan or Russia, or impose its power on tough regional actors like Viet Nam or Singapore. The US could drown China almost overnight in an economic cold war. Like it or not, there's still only one superpower. |
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Aug 17 |
comment |
Plagues in Pre-European Americas? @SevenSidedDie - Well, yeah, see also the newly discovered Amazonian civilizations, who built with earth and timber as well, and supported immense cities - but until we find archeological evidence or firsthand documentation of it, it's not history, it's woolgathering. |
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Aug 17 |
comment |
Plagues in Pre-European Americas? @SevenSidedDie - Mississippian Mound Builder Culture. At their height, they had a city of 20,000-30,000 people in Illinois - it wouldn't be until 1800 when North America would see a larger city. |
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Aug 16 |
comment |
Plagues in Pre-European Americas? One of its key points, that there were fewer animals capable of being domesticated, is also worth noting. Much of the disease across Eurasia is zoonotic, that is, originating in an animal and evolving to spread to human hosts. Native Americans had less livestock, and thus, less disease. Also see Charles C. Man's "1491" - Native Americans have T-cells optimized to fight parasites, not bacterial or viral infection. |
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Aug 13 |
comment |
What Was the State of German Tank Design In Between the World Wars? The Char B1 was a much better tank than anything the Germans had in the field at the time in terms of armor and firepower. It was, however, incompatible with German tank doctrine - the cupola could only hold one man, so the tank commander had to also be a gunner and the radioman. Furthermore, it was too slow for fast-moving blitzkreig formations, since its engine was underpowered. In a standup fight, the B1 fought off multiple panzer opponents. (It was vulnerable to heavy artillery, and too slow to escape such.) |
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Aug 13 |
answered | How is the photography printing on newpaper is possible in the WW2 era? |
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Aug 10 |
answered | Is there a different view by political-scientist in history that printing more bill is different from adding few more zeros in a bill |
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Aug 9 |
comment |
Did Japan ever pay Russia a reasonable amount of war reparation after WW2? Why or why not? @Victor - Yup, in the Treaty of San Francisco. |
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Aug 9 |
answered | Did Japan ever pay Russia a reasonable amount of war reparation after WW2? Why or why not? |
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Aug 8 |
answered | Is there any evidence for dual-wielding in the 12th Century? |
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Aug 8 |
answered | What island in the Caspian sea did Ala Ad-Din Muhammad die on, after escaping Genghis Khan? |
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Aug 7 |
comment |
Chronology of Political Party Alignment with “Left” and “Right” Liberal and Conservative mean very different things in the US - hence the "rightwing" (traditionalist, authoritarian) and "leftwing" (neophiliac, individualist) terms. Of course, this is further confused by the insistence of the right wing in this country that they're individualist, and the left wing wants to return to a more traditional fiscal policy - so, in short, you're on your own figuring it out. |
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Aug 2 |
comment |
Did Jefferson really say this quote about patriotism? @T.E.D. - Frenzy yes, frenzied, no. The LoC archive was smmart enough to search for both after entering frenzied. |
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Aug 2 |
comment |
What was the first confirmed use of black powder to blow stuff up in war (in China and in Europe)? @Luke - Re-read the question. Carefully. Actually, not that carefully, just find the second bullet point. If you can beat 1567 in Europe please do. |
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Aug 2 |
revised |
What was the first confirmed use of black powder to blow stuff up in war (in China and in Europe)? added 9 characters in body |
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Aug 2 |
answered | What was the first confirmed use of black powder to blow stuff up in war (in China and in Europe)? |
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Aug 2 |
revised |
Continent-wide common languages in human history added 25 characters in body |
