History, Politics And Current Affairs

I liked the new Odyssey adaptation, but I didn't loved it. The core problem is that the film strips out the single most defining emotional through‑line of the poem — Odysseus’ delight in his own cleverness. The near‑absence of the gods didn’t bother me. That’s a perfectly valid artistic choice. What...

gtg947h wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2026 7:13 pm Hey, there's a cloud I can yell at...

hey, I resemble that remark! laugh.

Oh of course and have to end with

Get off my lawn!

The problem is that the required feature set of any new car makes it too damn expensive to buy multiple vehicles to have one suited to purpose. So we end up buying for the most stressing use case, and that means we have people commuting in Chevy Tahoes or F-250s. let me be clear. It is your money; ...

I am just another clueless American, so I am not going to claim to have a deep understanding of Sweden's defense needs, so this is more a question than a definitive statement. But given that the Iran and Ukraine wars have proven how vulnerable frigates are to drones both on the sea and in the air in...

FTA A significant drawback of the cycler concept was that the Aldrin cycler flies by both planets at high speed. A taxi would need to accelerate to 15,000 miles per hour (6.7 km/s) around Earth, and 22,000 miles per hour (9.8 km/s) near Mars. Delta V 17 km/s. that's about 1/3 the escape velocity of...

Maybe. But a lot of things have to go completely right for the concept as advocated by the former Commandant to succeed. It’s worked once or twice, ish - but failed considerably more than it succeeded. 1st Wake worked because the IJN was under resourced, and Midway worked because we had 2 carriers ...

One comment - the President is not anywhere near pushing for a land war anywhere. He is already on thin ice with much of his base. I, for one, am in support of the military actions actually taken thus far. I am NOT in favor of some of the threats tossed around and certainly not in favor of threaten...

And just to get back on topic - What does that all portend for the Navy shipbuilding program? Hard to say, really, because both parties like big contracts in the various congressional districts. The Trump battleship would likely, er, sink just because. But most everything else should, er, sail on t...

Could it happen sooner? If, for example, the DNC take the House and Senate after the mid-terms? Perish the thought!! BURN the heretic!!! But for discussion only sake - The Senate is unlikely to flip. It is possible but unlikely. The House could but at this point unpredictable. The redistricting bat...

Could someone please explain Egypt's motive here? Otherwise, it sounds like a conspiracy theory. I mean, I get wanting bribes, but then trying to sabotage the team and not wanting them to discover new artifacts? You would think that it would be in Egypt's interest for new discovers as that will just...

Agreed. I don't think there's been a president since Regan that deserved a carrier named after him. I'm not sure there's a president before him going back to FDR that deserved a carrier named after him. Eisenhower, perhaps, but he was an Army guy. Seems sacrilegious to name a Navy ship after a pres...

I will give the guy credit. We haven't even reached the May or July dates for the speeches, and he is already recanting his story. That is more integrity than the vast majority of conspiracy theorists out there. (Heck I will go so far as to say that is more than the average human, as he didn't wait ...

...LOTS of chatter over the last couple days about these videos - Nathan Fillion visiting some of the crew of the Serenity with some cryptic (and funny) back-and-forth. https://sffgazette.com/sci_fi/television/nathan-fillion-teases-firefly-announcement-coming-this-sunday-a9778?utm_source=fark&u...

I'd very much like to know more details about women in uniform being abused in the street. The way its stated makes it seems like ONLY women in uniform are being abused in the street, and that seems so totally out of character for New Zealand that my bullshit meter is hitting the stops. A cursory g...

I routinely listen to these: I’m also working through the following podcasts, but have not caught up completely so can’t vouch for the quality the same way: Revolutions: I am on episode 11 of their first series on the English Civil Wars, and it’s a snarky but entertaining high-level summary. I can ...

I'm going to say something as a military veteran, as a science fiction fan, and as a Star Trek fan: Stories about basic training are going to be one of the following: About as interesting as watching paint dry; Utter shite; Both. Training is dull for anyone not actually going through it. The Camp A...

kdahm wrote: ↑Tue Oct 28, 2025 1:19 pm Might as well saddle and ride a hippopotamus.

Now we are talking! My army of battle hippo will crush everything before us.

I have to admit that is totally cool.

To some extent some of your questions might be answered in this fact file.

viewtopic.php?t=670

The only one I can remember from Russia was Rasputin. (The knowledge that he was a long lifer drove him insane.) I am almost certain there were others, but that is the only one I can remember. IIRC he listed a whole bunch of people in the thread where someone posted the Keanu Reeves is immortal meme...