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History;
Topic Started: Jun 27 2011, 02:28 PM (433 Views)
Ishy
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I'm reading the something awful forums and I come to happen upon the History thread of crazy things and honestly, maybe I didn't even know. So here is one that was posted...


>Phantom time hypothesis

The Phantom time hypothesis is a conspiracy theory developed by Heribert Illig (born 1947 in Vohenstrauß, Germany) in 1991. It proposes that there has been a systematic effort to make it appear that periods of history, specifically that of Europe during the Early Middle Ages (AD 614–911) exist, when they do not. Illig believed that this was achieved through the alteration, misrepresentation and forgery of documentary and physical evidence.[1]


Gregorian calendarThe theory also stems from a claim of Illig's regarding the relation between the Julian calendar, Gregorian calendar and the underlying astronomical solar or tropical year. The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar, was long known to introduce a discrepancy from the tropical year of around one day, for each century that the calendar was in use. By the time the Gregorian calendar was introduced in AD 1582, Illig alleges that the old Julian calendar "should" have produced a discrepancy of thirteen days between it and the real (or tropical) calendar. Instead, the astronomers and mathematicians working for Pope Gregory had found that the civil calendar needed to be adjusted by only ten days. From this, Illig concludes that the AD era had counted roughly three centuries which never existed.[2]

In fact, the Gregorian reform was never intended to bring the calendar in line with the Julian calendar as it had existed in AD 1, but as it had existed in 325, the time of the Council of Nicaea, which had established a method for determining the date of Easter Sunday by fixing the Vernal Equinox on March 20 in the Julian calendar. By 1582, the astronomical equinox was occurring on March 10 in the Julian calendar, but Easter was still being calculated from a nominal equinox on March 20. The Gregorian reform was never intended or purported to restore the relationship between calendar date and astronomical equinox to what it had been at the time of the institution of the Julian calendar in 45 BC, 369 years before the council of Nicaea, when the astronomical vernal equinox took place around March 23. Illig's "three missing centuries" thus correspond to the period between the fixing of Anno Domini reckoning to begin at AD 1 and the fixing of the Easter Date at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.

Basis of his hypothesisThe basis of Illig's hypothesis is the paucity of archaeological evidence that can be reliably dated to the period AD 614–911, on perceived inadequacies of radiometric and dendrochronological methods of dating this period, and on the over-reliance of medieval historians on written sources.

For Western Europe, Illig claims the presence of Romanesque architecture in the tenth century as evidence that less than half a millennium could have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire, and concludes that the entire Carolingian period, including the person of Charlemagne, is a forgery of medieval chroniclers, more precisely a conspiracy instigated by Otto III and Gerbert d'Aurillac.

Arguments against the hypothesisThere are several dating methods which contradict the theory. Observations in ancient astronomy agree with current observations with no 'phantom time' added; for example the end of the Greco-Persian Wars was marked by two solar eclipses within a year and a half; the only possible dates are 2 October 480 BCE and 14 February 478 BCE.[3] Dating methods such as dendrochronology show that the phantom time hypothesis is incorrect, as do records of sightings of Halley's Comet. [4] Furthermore, written records from China's Tang Dynasty, Korea's North South States Period, India's Chalukya and Chola Empires and the Rashidun Caliphate in Asia Minor coincide with the proposed missing years.[chronology citation needed]



>The London Beer Flood occurred on October 17, 1814 in the parish of St. Giles, London, England. At the Meux and Company Brewery[1] on Tottenham Court Road,[1][2] a huge vat containing over 135,000 imperial gallons (610,000 L) of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same building to succumb in a domino effect. As a result, more than 323,000 imperial gallons (1,470,000 L) of beer burst out and gushed into the streets. The wave of beer destroyed two homes and crumbled the wall of the Tavistock Arms Pub, trapping teenaged employee Eleanor Cooper under the rubble.[3]
The brewery was located among the poor houses and tenements of the St Giles Rookery, where whole families lived in basement rooms that quickly filled with beer. Eight people drowned in the flood


>The Pig War was a confrontation in 1859 between the United States and the British Empire over the boundary between the US and British North America. The specific area in dispute was the San Juan Islands, which lie between Vancouver Island and the North American mainland. The Pig War, so called because it was triggered by the shooting of a pig, is also called the Pig Episode, the Pig and Potato War, the San Juan Boundary Dispute or the Northwestern Boundary Dispute. The pig was the only casualty of the war, making the dispute otherwise bloodless.

>who could forget the Defenestration of Prague? Protestant mob chucks some unpopular Catholic nobles (and their secretary) out of a 70-foot window. They survive the encounter because they landed in a pile of poo poo.

The secretary is later made a noble by the Holy Roman Emperor, with the title "Baron of Highfall."

>1871: Clement Vallandigham, U.S. Congressman and political opponent of Abraham Lincoln, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound suffered in court while representing the defendant in a murder case. Demonstrating how the murder victim could have inadvertently shot himself, the gun, which Vallandigham believed to be unloaded, discharged and mortally wounded him. The defendant was acquitted.




>> I'll add more later when I'm bored.
Edited by Ishy, Jun 27 2011, 02:52 PM.
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Ishy
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Also...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths
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Valric
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WOW what A find you know I am making a list of consperisy's nice add
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Ishy
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The US Air Force was once looking into making a Gay Bomb:

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The "halitosis bomb" and "gay bomb" are informal names for two theoretical non-lethal chemical weapons, which a United States Air Force research laboratory speculated about producing, which involved discharging female sex pheromones over enemy forces in order to make them sexually attracted to each other.

[...]

In both of the documents, the possibility was canvassed that a strong aphrodisiac could be dropped on enemy troops, ideally one which would also cause "homosexual behavior". The documents described the aphrodisiac weapon as "distasteful but completely non-lethal". The "New Discoveries Needed" section of one of the documents implicitly acknowledges that no such chemicals are actually known. The reports also include many other off-beat ideas, such as spraying enemy troops with bee pheromones and then hiding numerous beehives in the combat area, and a chemical weapon that would give the enemy bad breath.
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Ishy
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The Daily Mail:

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He was no doubt handy with a bayonet and a rifle.

But as a young soldier in the First World War, Len Smith's deadliest weapons were his pencil and his pad.

In the days before satellite surveillance provided detailed images from the sky, Private Smith would creep behind enemy lines - and draw.

...the sapper with the Royal Engineers Special Branch crawled to within a few yards of an enemy HQ and drew a tree so accurately that his comrades were able to create a hollow steel replica.

The real tree was then removed under cover of darkness and replaced by the replica - with a soldier stationed inside who was able to report back on German activity.
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Ishy
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Demon Core:

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The Demon Core was the nickname given to a 6.2-kilogram (14 lb) subcritical mass of plutonium that accidentally went briefly critical in two separate accidents at the Los Alamos laboratory in 1945 and 1946. Both incidents resulted in the acute radiation poisoning and the subsequent death of a scientist. After these incidents, the sphere of plutonium was referred to as the Demon Core.

The core was used in an atomic bomb test in 1946, five weeks after the second fatal accident, and proved in practice to have a slightly increased yield over similar cores which had not been subjected to criticality excursions.



Nazi Cows
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Obviously World War II is a goldmine for this kind of poo poo because as well as being batshit crazy, Hitler was also...you know, batshit crazy.

I remember hearing about this on a Jon Ronson (Of 'Men Who Stare At Goats' fame.) documentary. Obviously the attempt to 'backbreed' the extinct European aurocdidn't work out because, to paraphrase Morbo, GENES DO NOT WORK THAT WAY - GOODNIGHT. But Nazis being Nazis and DNA still on the cusp of being discovered, they continued with their bizarre cow fiddling in the hopes of producing a bovine more 'Aryan' than other cattle. Yes, apparently there were flora and fauna that were just that much more Aryan than other flora and fauna. I'm not sure how this works. Some mad bastard presumably looked at a Friesan cow and denounced it for racial impurity while a Highland, for example, got a big Nazi thumbs-up on account of having big fucking Wagnerian horns. Perhaps. Who knows. Nazis were fucking insane.
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Ishy
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Trying to include links when and if I can, sorry folks.


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Everyone remembers the Mongols.

Everyone knows about Genghis Khan.

Not many know about this dude:

Posted Image

Genghis was the leader and the bloodthirsty conqueror, but Subutai was the brains behind the whole operation. He was Genghis Khan's and his son's Ögedei Khan's primary strategist. There is no single military commander in world history whose campaigns overran as much territory. What military academy did this prodigy graduate from, you ask? Nowhere. He was a blacksmith's son who gained his position purely through merit and pure loving brains.

Amongst his accomplishments:

Being the first person, or among the first, to use siege weapons as tactical artillery on the field.

Forming one of the most skilled intelligence network in world history, by incorporating conquered people into his own service. He gathered intelligence on his enemies, sometimes a year before he went into war with them.

Invented many revolutionary and sophisticated strategies, especially for light cavalry and mobile tactics.

Conquered thirty-two different nations.

Won sixty-five pitched battles.

Destroyed the armies of Hungary and Poland. In 48 hours. With 500 kilometers between the two fields of battle.

Unlike many of the armies he faced in battle and crushed he didn't give a flying gently caress about noble origins, honour or personal valour. He didn't ride into war in front of his men, he sat on a hill directing his forces with flags. If Genghis Khan had not died and he was not recalled, he probably would have invaded the Holy Roman Empire as he already had plans to do so. Even when he was old and too fat to ride a horse they still dragged him to the battlefield to work his magic, and every time they did he brought the enemies of whoever he was serving to their knees.

Every time I read a list about greatest commanders or strategists in history, he's rarely mentioned. That sucks.
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Ishy
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Supersonic Low Altitude Missile

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In regards to ridiculous weapon technology, there's the Supersonic Low Altitude Missile. It was basically a flying slab of metal powered by an open nuclear reactor.

It was destined to fly to a target, spreading nuclear fallout all along the way before impacting into the target and detonating or something.

The design was extremely popular until scientists realized that it was essentially impossible to launch without destroying the area it was being launched from.

Also, if it went out of control, it would basically loop the planet 4 or 5 times, completely killing whatever it passed over.


~
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That's not all. It would launch around 16 nuclear warheads at targets along it's flight path while irradiating everything it flew over. It would then detonate over it's final target.

That's some scary shit.
Edited by Ishy, Jul 14 2011, 04:00 PM.
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Pinball was Illegal

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Being born in 1979, this is something that I wasn't aware of until a few years ago. Pinball was banned in several major US cities in the mid 20th century. The reason being was that pinball was considered a game of chance and thus a form of gambling. Pinball machines went into hiding, prohibition style, and in New York City, they would actually go in and bust up pinball machines and dump their remains into the cities rivers. The ban wasn't lifted in NYC until 1976, when a man named Roger Sharpe demonstrated his skill in front of the city council. He would call where the ball would go, thus demonstrating the skill required to play pinball successfully. Even after all of that, until a few years ago it was still illegal for anyone under 18 to play pinball in Nashville, TN, and it's still illegal to play on Sundays in Ocean City, NJ.

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Tsar Bomba

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Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба) is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Also known as Kuz`kina Mat` (Russian: Кузькина мать, Kuzka's mother).

Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT (420 PJ); however, the bomb yield was reduced to 50 megatons in order to reduce nuclear fallout. This attempt was successful, as it was one of the cleanest (relative to its yield) nuclear bombs ever detonated. Only one bomb of this type was ever built and it was tested on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.[1]

The remaining bomb casings are located at the Russian Atomic Weapon Museum, Sarov (Arzamas-16), and the Museum of Nuclear Weapons, All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics, Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk-70). Neither of these casings has the same antenna configuration as the actual device that was tested.
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