Have fun reading about countless deaths, and in the future, google stuff.
I did google it. I wanted to know where YOU got the information. Because while I got several references to the pandemic first appearing in the USA in Camp Funston, Kansas (at the time your report said it appeared in Fort Riley), I also got references to it appearing earlier in Kansas, and early enough in other parts of the world that it couldn't have originated in Kansas. Your reference has less information than some of the places I've seen, but more positive about origin that other sources, most of which attributed the case mentioned as the first AMERICAN case, not the first worldwide case. And most of them were none too sure it was even the first American case, just the first one that they can positively identify - "medical records" in Kansas back then were problematic as best.
On the other hand, the likelihood of something migrating from ANYWHERE to Kansas is so minute as to be unbelievable. Noone and nothing goes TO Kansas, we all go away from there (I was born there, so I know whereof I speak).
Note that the troops didn't take the pandemic to Spain. It was called Spanish Flu because Spain was about the only country in Europe willing to admit how severe the pandemic was - most other countries were still fighting WW1, and their official censorship policies kept up a running babble of "it's not all that bad, so stop being hysterical, it just helps the enemy"....
Note also that the pandemic came in three waves. The first wave wasn't all that serious, the second was downright nasty, the third was somewhere in between, but closer to the second. And at least the second and third waves happened more or less at the same time everywhere. Which suggests an animal vector. The CDC report seems to say that pretty much every influenza strain since then has been descended from that one, which was radically different than previous strains.
But they brough the infamous inluenza with them to spain, which spread and killed about 20 to 30 million people.
Closer to 50 million, worldwide. I hadn't heard that the source was the USA, though. Last time I read up on the subject, the source was still unknown. Can you point me at your reference indicating that the pandemic started in the USA, please?
Galileo was considered a heretic (in a literal sense!) by the Church rather than his fellow scientists. This was because other scientists, after reading his arguments, were agreeing with him!
Umm, no. Galileo was referred to the Inquisistion by a scientist he had accused (baselessly) of plagiarism. Apparently, Galileo was a bit of a curmudgeon (a rude asshole might be a better description), with no social skills to speak of.
Crusades? Mass burnings of "pagan" written knowledge? Torture of brilliant minds like Galileo Galilei for his heretical heliocentric [wikipedia.org] teachings and beliefs?
Crusades, check. Had nothing to do with why it was called the Dark Ages, as the Dark Ages had been proceeding nicely for 500 years (about as long as from Columbus to the present, for perspective) when the Crusades got going.
Mass burnings of "pagan" written knowledge? Missed that part. The European "pagans" were generally an illiterate bunch, so not sure where this comes in. Or did you mean that stuff done during the Renaissance?
Torture of brilliant minds like Galileo Galilei for his heretical heliocentric teachings and beliefs? Well, if he'd been tortured, that might mean something. Being restricted to his palatial estate doesn't even qualify as torture today. Never mind that he was tried for calling the Pope (who was a personal friend of his, once upon a time) a simpleton in his books, rather than for heliocentric beliefs. Never mind that he was so "brilliant" that he thought comets were optical illusions. Never mind that he didn't do any "teaching", just wrote the one book on the subject (where he called the Pope a simpleton, repeatedly). And mostly, never mind that Galileo was well AFTER the Dark Ages.
You've described many things attributable to the Renaissance as part of the Dark Ages. Why not remember some of what the Dark Ages REALLY had going for it? Like Three-Field Rotation? Invented in the Monasteries. Like double-entry bookkeeping? Likewise, invented by a bunch of Catholic monks.
But if you must remember the Renaissance as the Dark Ages, remember this - Copernicus was both a Catholic Priest and a scientist. Oh, wait, that punctures your world-view that the Church was opposed to science, doesn't it? Never mind, then. Just forget what you just read.
If the Catholic Church operated like Scientology they would have a copyrighted version of the bible and charge you money to read it.
I hate to make digs at the Roman Catholic Church, but once upon a time, it was against Church rules for laymen to read the Bible. Only the Priests could do so.
FYI, the inquisition was an European-wide phenomena, not just Spanish.
FYI, there were multiple "Inquisitions". The Spanish one is the best known, and was intended to ferret out Muslims and Jews who had converted (as was required by law at that time and place) to Christianity but were still secretly practicing their original religion.
Note that this was done for political reasons, not religious. The Spanish Inquisition was under the control of the Spanish Crown, not the Pope.
It's downfall was not so much that it was persecuting Muslims and Jews, but that it paid a reward to informants based on the value of the Inquisitee's property. Which made it all too tempting to accuse a competitor or rival, or just someone who's house you wanted....
The other Inquisitions goals were completely unrelated. Which is not necessarily the same as different. The Italian Inquisition could pursue "secret Jews" without any relation to the Spanish Inquisition, and for unrelated reasons.
Primaries aren't really part of the democratic process. In fact, they somewhat retard it.
Once upon a time, we didn't do Primaries. The Party bigwigs picked the candidates, and the people lived with the bigwigs' choice.
Later, some people decided they wanted more say than the Party bigwigs were allowing them, and things were changed.
First, they went with the Caucus. Which worked pretty well, except that "real people" couldn't really do anything - the Party bigwigs could just keep the Caucus arguing till all the people who had to make a living went home, then pick who they'd like.
Later, they went with the Primary. Of course, elections are expensive, so they got the States to foot the bill (wonderful thing, to have enough clout with the State Legislatures to get them to pay your bills). Which is where we're at today.
Note that there's nothing sacred about New Hampshire and Iowa. They have the first Primary and Caucus because their State Parties set the dates early. There is no moral imperative on anyone's part, nor is there a legal imperative, to NOT move any given State's Primary to an earlier date than those two.
I'm all for the race to an early decision on candidacy. By the time we get all the Primaries back to more than two years before the election, everyone will have forgotten the who the candidates are by the time the real election comes around.
"They" who? A primary isn't a constitutional election. It's a private group (the Party) holding a private election to determine who the party will place to represent the party in the National election.
The idea of combining all parties into a single primary is absurd.
Louisiana does this already. Though we don't call it a Primary/Election, we call it an Election/Runoff. Works pretty well - sometimes we get two Dems in the runoff, sometimes one Dem and one Rep, sometimes two Reps.
Note that this doesn't apply to Presidential races, where the rules are set by Congress, not the several States.
Parties apply, and get $x million per candidate (or however it's decided). This money comes out of the treasury, paid by taxes. No private donation. When the Republicans (me), the Democrats (others), and the Greens and such have to play on a level field, we'll get some real competition.
Just out of curiousity, under your system, if I have a couple million to blow and want to run a commercial favouring a particular candidate, would I be allowed to?
If so, then your system is essentially the same as the one we have now.
If not, that will raise some First Amendment issues.
Florida violated the Democratic party rules because they knew everyone else was following them, and by doing so have now broken the rules of the party and are sticking their noses up because of it.
This is actually a major problem. It would be like Florida deciding it needed to start voting for president a week early because they have had problems in the past with counting things, and then all the states going "well we want to start voting earlier too"
Well, except for the little detail that the day of the Presidential Election is specified in the Constitution as being on the same day for all States, and the specific day chosen by Congress (NOT by the States).
And the fact that Democratic Party rules are not, in spite of what you may believe, binding on the States. Nor are the Republican Party rules. Or the Green Party rules. Primaries are held by the States as a COURTESY to the political parties, not as a requirement. Personally, I think the Primaries should be held by the Parties, on their own schedule, at their own expense. NOT paid for by the States.
And there is a thing called Differential GPS. It was developed privately to allow people with access to only the coarse positioning signal from GPS to have positions as accurate as the precision positioning signal. More accurate, actually.
Note that SA has been turned off since Gulf War 1, when we found that there weren't enough milspec GPS receivers available, and had to supplement our forces with off the shelf civilian units.
I have no problem with someone who's doctor cut off the wrong leg (when they needed an appendectomy)....
Just out of curiousity, when you need an appendectomy, which leg is the wrong one to cut off? The left or the right? Or does it depend on which hand they write with?
WW1 is significant to a lot of the participants of that war, but it's not especially meaningful to most US citizens
Considering that the US was a participant in that war, I'd say you just proved the point about people from the US not knowing their history
Bravo! I like the way you carefully extracted part of my sentence so as to completely change the meaning of the sentence, and provide yourself with a mild ego-boo for "proving" me wrong....
The US eventually got dragged off the fence and into WW1
Quite so. Of course, the association between WW1 and poppies was mostly forged in the earlier part of the war, before we joined in. Though Third Ypres was after the US entry to the Great War, we weren't involved in that battle.
The reference is to the following poem, taught in elementary school around remembrance day (November 11th) in Canada. Written by Canadian John McCrae, during the first world war. I recall it made a pretty decent impact on me - war is no picnic.
Yes, I know. It had much the same impact on me. Enough so that *I* instantly recognize the association between poppies and WW1. That particular poem really should be one of those mandatory parts of a decent education anywhere....
I'm an American, and I've never heard of "Camerone Day"
Of course you haven't. It's not American. It's a French Foreign Legion thing. Refers to a desperate last stand by a company of Legionnaires in Mexico in 1863. It's considered one of those events defining the nature of a "good soldier" (by FFL standards, of course.
Point was that "remember our history lessons" means something different to different people.
In Texas, "remember the Alamo" is much more significant that it is in Japan. Or Hawaii, for that matter. Hell, we don't make much of it in Mississippi, for that matter.
Camerone Day is intensely important to the French Foreign Legion. Might be remembered a bit in Mexico as well, but I doubt it. The relation between poppies and WW1 is significant to a lot of the participants of that war, but it's not especially meaningful to most US citizens - just the few odd ones (like myself) who consider cultural details the most significant elements of history.
Seems we in the US also like to forget the help the French gave us in helping defeat the British to get our independence in the first place....
Yah, a lot of us do. I'm not one of them.
Qualifier: saying that we "defeated" the British is misleading. We, with French help, convinced them that the price they'd pay to keep us was too high for what they'd gain. Or possibly, the French, with OUR help, did that.
Note that the French didn't especially like us. They joined in because they wanted to hurt the British. Of course, we didn't especially like the French either - we had more in common with the British than with the French (we were mostly of British descent, after all).
Note further that our very next war was with the French. Followed by another go with the British. Nations have interests, not morals, after all. "Last war's enemy, next war's ally" is as old as humanity.
Well, I would say that Americans remember their history lessons too, but most of them don't. Of course, the association of poppies with WW1 isn't really a part of American (US) culture. We cleverly avoided that part of that bit of unpleasantness.
As a side note, do you know what Camerone Day is? Why not? Perhaps because it's not part of YOUR history....
and that a "red poppy looking flower" is probably A POPPY!!!
Which clearly shows that the coin is an advertisement for a druglord, eh?:)
Are most new democracies choosing a republican government or a parliamentarian government? And why?
Mostly because most people worldwide think that government is supposed to be DOING something. The US government was designed to make it as hard as possible for the government to do something. Lots of checks and balances. Alas, if Roosevelt could decide that growing your own hay for your own cows is a violation of the Interstate Commerce clause, then all hell's out for noon.
And Switzerland might have a word to say about the "world's first democracy".
And Periclean Athens might have a word to say to the Swiss on the subject as well.
War of independence was in 1776. Napoleon was a kid at the time. Maybe you're getting confused with the war of 1812, in which case Allies probably refers to Britain, Austria, Prussia - pretty much every European power other than France.
Let's see. I mentioned Napolean and his wars with the Allies, in context of the Louisiana Purchase (which happened in 1803). That would leave out the American Revolution. It would also leave out the War of 1812. That pretty much leaves the Napoleanic Wars, doesn't it? Which was between Napoleanic France and the Allies, which Allies pretty much included everyone in Europe but France. Yep.
I'm not quite sure where the confusion comes in, though, unless you were confused....
France is certainly one of the greatest allies this country has had, in fact we wouldn't be this large had Napolean not sold us the Louisiana Purchase to pay for his war with England.
Perhaps you meant to say "we wouldn't be this large had Napolean not stolen Louisiana from the Spanish and sold it to us to pay for his war with the Allies."?
I live in the NOLA area...now that you mention it...I think I did see a few of those 'blue' tubs some people used for recycling something, but, I think you had to request it if you wanted to do so.
Metairie, here. We didn't get the choice - they were issued to us. I used mine to store cans of paint - I'm not going to pay extra for the privilege of sorting my trash so someone else can sell it.
Do you get credit or lower rates on garbage collection for having to go to all this effort, and keeping track of all this.
Pre-Katrina, we had curbside recycling here. Theoretically, we had to separate our trash into "recyclables" and "non-recyclables". They put a special fee on our trash collection bills to pay for it.
Since Katrina, they've not bothered with curbside recycling, though I think that the special fee on our trash collection bills is still in place.
So, no, you don't get lower rates for having to go to all this effort.
Actually, pure-lead rounds won't strip the riflings, that type of heat will melt the lead and make it clog the riflings up.
Pure lead isn't very hard. Nor is it especially heavy. It's just the heaviest CHEAP metal. Note that copper jacketed bullets will clog the rifling too, eventually. It just takes longer. It's only an issue when you're firing a shot-pot full of rounds without cleaning the barrel - something that happens more often in combat than in target shooting.
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I did google it. I wanted to know where YOU got the information. Because while I got several references to the pandemic first appearing in the USA in Camp Funston, Kansas (at the time your report said it appeared in Fort Riley), I also got references to it appearing earlier in Kansas, and early enough in other parts of the world that it couldn't have originated in Kansas. Your reference has less information than some of the places I've seen, but more positive about origin that other sources, most of which attributed the case mentioned as the first AMERICAN case, not the first worldwide case. And most of them were none too sure it was even the first American case, just the first one that they can positively identify - "medical records" in Kansas back then were problematic as best.
On the other hand, the likelihood of something migrating from ANYWHERE to Kansas is so minute as to be unbelievable. Noone and nothing goes TO Kansas, we all go away from there (I was born there, so I know whereof I speak).
Note that the troops didn't take the pandemic to Spain. It was called Spanish Flu because Spain was about the only country in Europe willing to admit how severe the pandemic was - most other countries were still fighting WW1, and their official censorship policies kept up a running babble of "it's not all that bad, so stop being hysterical, it just helps the enemy"....
Note also that the pandemic came in three waves. The first wave wasn't all that serious, the second was downright nasty, the third was somewhere in between, but closer to the second. And at least the second and third waves happened more or less at the same time everywhere. Which suggests an animal vector. The CDC report seems to say that pretty much every influenza strain since then has been descended from that one, which was radically different than previous strains.
Closer to 50 million, worldwide. I hadn't heard that the source was the USA, though. Last time I read up on the subject, the source was still unknown. Can you point me at your reference indicating that the pandemic started in the USA, please?
Umm, no. Galileo was referred to the Inquisistion by a scientist he had accused (baselessly) of plagiarism. Apparently, Galileo was a bit of a curmudgeon (a rude asshole might be a better description), with no social skills to speak of.
Crusades, check. Had nothing to do with why it was called the Dark Ages, as the Dark Ages had been proceeding nicely for 500 years (about as long as from Columbus to the present, for perspective) when the Crusades got going.
Mass burnings of "pagan" written knowledge? Missed that part. The European "pagans" were generally an illiterate bunch, so not sure where this comes in. Or did you mean that stuff done during the Renaissance?
Torture of brilliant minds like Galileo Galilei for his heretical heliocentric teachings and beliefs? Well, if he'd been tortured, that might mean something. Being restricted to his palatial estate doesn't even qualify as torture today. Never mind that he was tried for calling the Pope (who was a personal friend of his, once upon a time) a simpleton in his books, rather than for heliocentric beliefs. Never mind that he was so "brilliant" that he thought comets were optical illusions. Never mind that he didn't do any "teaching", just wrote the one book on the subject (where he called the Pope a simpleton, repeatedly). And mostly, never mind that Galileo was well AFTER the Dark Ages.
You've described many things attributable to the Renaissance as part of the Dark Ages. Why not remember some of what the Dark Ages REALLY had going for it? Like Three-Field Rotation? Invented in the Monasteries. Like double-entry bookkeeping? Likewise, invented by a bunch of Catholic monks.
But if you must remember the Renaissance as the Dark Ages, remember this - Copernicus was both a Catholic Priest and a scientist. Oh, wait, that punctures your world-view that the Church was opposed to science, doesn't it? Never mind, then. Just forget what you just read.
Yes, they called it the Dark Ages for a reason. Of course, the reason had nothing whatsoever to do with religion dictating education.
I hate to make digs at the Roman Catholic Church, but once upon a time, it was against Church rules for laymen to read the Bible. Only the Priests could do so.
FYI, there were multiple "Inquisitions". The Spanish one is the best known, and was intended to ferret out Muslims and Jews who had converted (as was required by law at that time and place) to Christianity but were still secretly practicing their original religion.
Note that this was done for political reasons, not religious. The Spanish Inquisition was under the control of the Spanish Crown, not the Pope.
It's downfall was not so much that it was persecuting Muslims and Jews, but that it paid a reward to informants based on the value of the Inquisitee's property. Which made it all too tempting to accuse a competitor or rival, or just someone who's house you wanted....
The other Inquisitions goals were completely unrelated. Which is not necessarily the same as different. The Italian Inquisition could pursue "secret Jews" without any relation to the Spanish Inquisition, and for unrelated reasons.
Once upon a time, we didn't do Primaries. The Party bigwigs picked the candidates, and the people lived with the bigwigs' choice.
Later, some people decided they wanted more say than the Party bigwigs were allowing them, and things were changed.
First, they went with the Caucus. Which worked pretty well, except that "real people" couldn't really do anything - the Party bigwigs could just keep the Caucus arguing till all the people who had to make a living went home, then pick who they'd like.
Later, they went with the Primary. Of course, elections are expensive, so they got the States to foot the bill (wonderful thing, to have enough clout with the State Legislatures to get them to pay your bills). Which is where we're at today.
Note that there's nothing sacred about New Hampshire and Iowa. They have the first Primary and Caucus because their State Parties set the dates early. There is no moral imperative on anyone's part, nor is there a legal imperative, to NOT move any given State's Primary to an earlier date than those two.
I'm all for the race to an early decision on candidacy. By the time we get all the Primaries back to more than two years before the election, everyone will have forgotten the who the candidates are by the time the real election comes around.
The idea of combining all parties into a single primary is absurd.
Louisiana does this already. Though we don't call it a Primary/Election, we call it an Election/Runoff. Works pretty well - sometimes we get two Dems in the runoff, sometimes one Dem and one Rep, sometimes two Reps.
Note that this doesn't apply to Presidential races, where the rules are set by Congress, not the several States.
Just out of curiousity, under your system, if I have a couple million to blow and want to run a commercial favouring a particular candidate, would I be allowed to?
If so, then your system is essentially the same as the one we have now.
If not, that will raise some First Amendment issues.
This is actually a major problem. It would be like Florida deciding it needed to start voting for president a week early because they have had problems in the past with counting things, and then all the states going "well we want to start voting earlier too"
Well, except for the little detail that the day of the Presidential Election is specified in the Constitution as being on the same day for all States, and the specific day chosen by Congress (NOT by the States).
And the fact that Democratic Party rules are not, in spite of what you may believe, binding on the States. Nor are the Republican Party rules. Or the Green Party rules. Primaries are held by the States as a COURTESY to the political parties, not as a requirement. Personally, I think the Primaries should be held by the Parties, on their own schedule, at their own expense. NOT paid for by the States.
And there is a thing called Differential GPS. It was developed privately to allow people with access to only the coarse positioning signal from GPS to have positions as accurate as the precision positioning signal. More accurate, actually.
Note that SA has been turned off since Gulf War 1, when we found that there weren't enough milspec GPS receivers available, and had to supplement our forces with off the shelf civilian units.
Just out of curiousity, when you need an appendectomy, which leg is the wrong one to cut off? The left or the right? Or does it depend on which hand they write with?
Considering that the US was a participant in that war, I'd say you just proved the point about people from the US not knowing their history
Bravo! I like the way you carefully extracted part of my sentence so as to completely change the meaning of the sentence, and provide yourself with a mild ego-boo for "proving" me wrong....
Quite so. Of course, the association between WW1 and poppies was mostly forged in the earlier part of the war, before we joined in. Though Third Ypres was after the US entry to the Great War, we weren't involved in that battle.
Yes, I know. It had much the same impact on me. Enough so that *I* instantly recognize the association between poppies and WW1. That particular poem really should be one of those mandatory parts of a decent education anywhere....
Of course you haven't. It's not American. It's a French Foreign Legion thing. Refers to a desperate last stand by a company of Legionnaires in Mexico in 1863. It's considered one of those events defining the nature of a "good soldier" (by FFL standards, of course.
Point was that "remember our history lessons" means something different to different people.
In Texas, "remember the Alamo" is much more significant that it is in Japan. Or Hawaii, for that matter. Hell, we don't make much of it in Mississippi, for that matter.
Camerone Day is intensely important to the French Foreign Legion. Might be remembered a bit in Mexico as well, but I doubt it. The relation between poppies and WW1 is significant to a lot of the participants of that war, but it's not especially meaningful to most US citizens - just the few odd ones (like myself) who consider cultural details the most significant elements of history.
Yah, a lot of us do. I'm not one of them.
Qualifier: saying that we "defeated" the British is misleading. We, with French help, convinced them that the price they'd pay to keep us was too high for what they'd gain. Or possibly, the French, with OUR help, did that.
Note that the French didn't especially like us. They joined in because they wanted to hurt the British. Of course, we didn't especially like the French either - we had more in common with the British than with the French (we were mostly of British descent, after all).
Note further that our very next war was with the French. Followed by another go with the British. Nations have interests, not morals, after all. "Last war's enemy, next war's ally" is as old as humanity.
Well, I would say that Americans remember their history lessons too, but most of them don't. Of course, the association of poppies with WW1 isn't really a part of American (US) culture. We cleverly avoided that part of that bit of unpleasantness.
As a side note, do you know what Camerone Day is? Why not? Perhaps because it's not part of YOUR history....
and that a "red poppy looking flower" is probably A POPPY!!!
Which clearly shows that the coin is an advertisement for a druglord, eh? :)
Are most new democracies choosing a republican government or a parliamentarian government? And why?
Mostly because most people worldwide think that government is supposed to be DOING something. The US government was designed to make it as hard as possible for the government to do something. Lots of checks and balances. Alas, if Roosevelt could decide that growing your own hay for your own cows is a violation of the Interstate Commerce clause, then all hell's out for noon.
And Switzerland might have a word to say about the "world's first democracy".
And Periclean Athens might have a word to say to the Swiss on the subject as well.
Let's see. I mentioned Napolean and his wars with the Allies, in context of the Louisiana Purchase (which happened in 1803). That would leave out the American Revolution. It would also leave out the War of 1812. That pretty much leaves the Napoleanic Wars, doesn't it? Which was between Napoleanic France and the Allies, which Allies pretty much included everyone in Europe but France. Yep.
I'm not quite sure where the confusion comes in, though, unless you were confused....
Perhaps you meant to say "we wouldn't be this large had Napolean not stolen Louisiana from the Spanish and sold it to us to pay for his war with the Allies."?
Metairie, here. We didn't get the choice - they were issued to us. I used mine to store cans of paint - I'm not going to pay extra for the privilege of sorting my trash so someone else can sell it.
Pre-Katrina, we had curbside recycling here. Theoretically, we had to separate our trash into "recyclables" and "non-recyclables". They put a special fee on our trash collection bills to pay for it.
Since Katrina, they've not bothered with curbside recycling, though I think that the special fee on our trash collection bills is still in place.
So, no, you don't get lower rates for having to go to all this effort.
Pure lead isn't very hard. Nor is it especially heavy. It's just the heaviest CHEAP metal. Note that copper jacketed bullets will clog the rifling too, eventually. It just takes longer. It's only an issue when you're firing a shot-pot full of rounds without cleaning the barrel - something that happens more often in combat than in target shooting.