re: GMT

Today in History December 29

1170--Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights of Henry II.

1607--Indian chief Powhatan spares John Smith's life after the pleas of his daughter Pocahontas.

1778--British troops, attempting a new strategy to defeat the colonials in America, capture Savannah.

1845--Texas (comprised of the present state of Texas and part of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) is admitted as the 28th state of the Union, with the provision that the area (389,166 square miles) should be divided into no more than five states "of convenient size."

1849--Gas lighting is installed in the White House.

1862--Union General William T. Sherman's troops try to gain the north side of Vicksburg in the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs.

1890--The last major conflict of the Indian wars takes place at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota after Colonel James W. Forsyth of the 7th Cavalry tries to disarm Chief Big Foot and his followers.

1921--Sears Roebuck president Julius Rosenwald pledges $20 million of his personal fortune to help Sears through hard times.

1926--Germany and Italy sign an arbitration treaty.

1934--Japan formally denounces Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.

1940--In a radio interview, President Roosevelt proclaims the United States to be the "arsenal of democracy."

1940--London suffers its most devastating air raid when Germans firebomb the city on the evening of December 29.

1956--President Dwight Eisenhower asks Congress for the authority to oppose Soviet aggression in the Middle East.

1965--A Christmas truce is observed in Vietnam, while President Johnson tries to get the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table.

1981--President Ronald Reagan curtails Soviet trade in reprisal for its harsh policies on Poland.

2018 Record lowest temperature of -111C registered by American satellite Noaa-20 in the western Pacific at top of large storm

Born on December 29


1800--Charles Goodyear, inventor of vulcanized rubber for tires.

JOKE OF THE DAY

Men vacuum in the same way that they have sex. They just put it in, make some noise during 3 minutes, before they collapse on the couch and think that their wife should be really happy.

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The last major conflict of the Indian wars takes place at Wounded Knee

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Good morning
Happy Birthday to Mr K

What year is this?

Today in History December 31

406 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia

1695 A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.

1775 George Washington orders recruiting officers to accept free blacks into the army.

1852 The richest year of the gold rush ends with $81.3 million in gold produced.

1930 Brewery heir Adolphus Busch is kidnapped.

1965 California becomes the largest state in population.

1988 "The Fog Bowl", a heavy, dense fog rolls over Soldier Field in Chicago during second quarter of the Bears vs Eagles NFC Divisional Playoff Game, cuts visibility to 15-20 yards (Bears win 20-12)

2004 Official opening of Taipei 101, then the tallest skyscraper in the world, at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet)

2020 WHO grants the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization, paving the way for worldwide distribution

Born on December 31

1908 Simon Wiesenthal, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust who dedicated his life to tracking down former Nazis.

JOTD

Texan: “Where are you from?” Harvard graduate: “I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions.” Texan: “Ok, where are you from, jackass?”

Morning all

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1695 A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.

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Taxes, at this point, were still fairly new sources of revenue in the UK. Oh, they had some before this, but the economy had finally grown to the point where society could have regular taxes.

The only problem is... the people with 90% of the money were the people running the government so an income tax was the last thing in the world they wanted. So you get stamp taxes, window taxes, boot taxes, and all manner of odd taxes. One reason why relations between the US colonies and the UK declined so rapidly was that the US had been spared the weird taxes Britain was leveling.When the British suddenly started enforcing a few of those odd taxes on the colonists they promptly lost their shite.

Morning all

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404 Last gladiator competition in Rome

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Despite what Gladiator 2 would have you believe gladiator events were a distant second (sometimes third) form of sporting entertainment in Rome. Horse and chariot racing was vastly more popular. Circus Maximus was quite a bit larger than the Colosseum, drew twice as many spectators, and ran far more frequently.

Gladiator events were run by event promoters, called Editors (I shite you not, that is how we got that word) who rented talent for the show and were paid a small fee to execute prisoners prisoners of the state. Emperors or Senators might be the Editor, but more often it was simply a local promoter.

Events followed a set schedule. In the morning highly trained hunters would kill wild animals. The ferocity of the animals in question wasn't the selling point. It was their rarity and exotic nature. A poor giraffe was as likely to be slaughtered as several hunters working together to kill a lion. Gladiators did not fight wild animals unless the poor beast was trussed up.

Then, around noon, prisoners would be killed. This is where you get your classic Christians thrown to the lions. Of course, the Romans were a very creative society so a variety of methods were used not just lions. And yes, they did fight gladiators. But, unlike the movies, Prisoners weren't armed in gladiator fights, weren't wearing armor, and were usually restrained (such as having their arms tied behind their back). A group of prisoners might be armed and forced to battle to the death in the hope of freedom. Usually the winner was put to death anyway. Also, unlike the movies, this was far and away the least popular segment of the show. Out of a crowd of 40K you'd have at most two or three hundred people watching the mid day show.

Then the main event started with gladiators fighting one another. Usually one on one, rarely three on three. Usually these matches were not to the death. Gladiators were slaves rented from the schools that trained them. If a gladiator died during the show the Editor paid full price for the slave. So, if super famous Biggus Dickus dies during your show you might find that you actually lost money on the event.

Gladiators used very specialized armor and weapons (such as the classic net and trident) but they all had one thing in common... unlike the movies they never wore chest armor. Never. This was to show their bravery since even a highly skilled gladiator could be killed by a lucky stab to the gut.

One final note to Gladiator 2. Ridley Scott is full of shite. The dual Emperors were far from pale, gay, red heads. They were North African/Syrians. Geta looked like a bruiser, Caracalla looked like Jacob Fatu with curly hair. Their mother Julia was Syrian, and was, if you will pardon the expression, the brains of the outfit. Caracalla had his brother assassinated with poor Geta dying in his mother's arms. She, of course, quickly got over it and spent her time ruling the Empire. Caracalla was a fighting Emperor and spent his time making war on just about everyone unfortunate enough to be a Roman neighbor.

Caracalla was very much the Hard Man who creates Hard Times. His constant and highly expensive wars drained the Imperial treasury despite his mother's best attempts to raise revenue and greatly contributed to the meltdown of Roman society shortly after his death.

You need to write a book, sir.

I liked Gladiator 2 OK, but I liked the first one better.

How "accurate" is the Russell Crowe movie?