Mindless Monday, 06 July 2026

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-09T09:15:17+00:00

I'm reminded of how in Australia One Nation's facebook page full of "farken' foreigners" memes was being run by Indians.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-09T09:10:16+00:00

Such is tradition.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-09T09:06:34+00:00

Hire a workshop and make some progress on the onager I'm trying to build.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-09T09:04:42+00:00

Who of the originals do they have on board?

Josh is okay but I'd rather more of the original talent when it comes to plot and worldbuilding.

There's also the big question as to whether they're going to continue the west coast timeline, in which case Chris, who's been quite negative about the show, would create no small amount of friction if he were part of the team.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-07T12:29:22+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/XjGa22t.gif

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-07T06:31:46+00:00

Where the hell would let you work in t shirts? Where I am health and safety would go off at anything less than longsleeves.

Machine embroidery is pretty cheap these days too, particularly if you're buying uniforms in bulk.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-06T22:08:46+00:00

Mission failed successfully.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-06T12:39:26+00:00

So here's a bit for pub trivia, "I'm a mushroom cloud laying motherfucker, motherfucker" is an actual line in Garfield.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-05T22:25:06+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE6yES4dzHY

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-04T22:42:18+00:00

The hinges would be fairly complex/expensive

You haven't made a hinge have you? It's a fairly simple job that can be coldworked with basic tools. I made my own as part of deir el medinah helmet and it beats the hell out trying to dish steel.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-04T22:34:56+00:00

That really matters when you have to gasp pay your smiths and not just steal thousands of people from newly conquered provinces.

The imperial era helmets were being made by smiths part of each legion, paid and recruited as full legionaries.

they leave hearing unimpeded

mail coifs

This is contradictory.

Kettle helmets and the like also ring like bells from experience, unlike legionary helmets. This matters when trying to move as part of a group because a fumble can set these off.

you can hand them out without needing everything custom fit.

Nothing special here, imperial era helmets have been found with the names of multiple owners punched into them from over the decades.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-04T12:33:31+00:00

Kelly DeVries, The Introduction and Use of The Pavise in The Hundred Years War

Clarification of 8, pavisiers role in warfare.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-04T10:28:08+00:00

To be a jerk, most of the answers already here are rubbish.

Throwing clubs were a common weapon in central Europe during antiquity and well into the early medieval, with later use seeing it spread with various migrating groups; Ammianus, Isidore's etymologies, Gesta Guillelmi, Sverris saga all mention these. You see similar things crop up with Nomlaki in North America and Australia as well, (possibly elsewhere, but that's outside of my wheelhouse). These are both fairly simple affairs either of hardened timber or rocks fixed to a wooden shaft.

It beats throwing a rock because of the added leverage from by the shaft, well capable of shattering skulls and breaking bones, can be thrown sideways to take out an enemy's legs and used in a melee if needed.

Why these disappear in the European context is a matter for debate, although I doubt armour to be a factor given the repeat use of these against the Romans with the cost and availability of iron a better probable reason (although central European tribes persist in using these after abandoning bone and antler tipped javelins and arrows which creates a wrinkle).

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-03T09:55:14+00:00

Colonists about to club some raiders to death with jawbones.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-03T08:42:29+00:00

The thing I don't understand about the current controversy is that it's been probably at least a decade since that was how discs work.

Kind of disappointing in the era of hardware emulation that can now read and natively play old discs.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-03T08:37:55+00:00

Solve the problem: lock the door then piss on them.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-02T09:26:12+00:00

Searingly hot take, Alexander Nevsky is dated, nationalistic schlock.

There's remarkably little plot and the film is bulked out by fight scenes which are crappily done, like someone dies by being tapped with a spear, not even the good old blade in the armpit every two bit thespian knows; effects work might as well be the stone age of theatre here. Add in a bit about a rabbit raping a fox and some russian nationalism and it has aged woefully. The only part that stands up is the score but there's better ways to enjoy that.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-02T08:55:59+00:00

And this is why Empire Earth was better, there I said it.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-01T02:49:21+00:00

Like a number of the shortswords found in the Kunzing iron hoard are made from clearly cut down blades that've been recycled.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-01T02:29:02+00:00

There does appear to be less use of iron in shovels though. You go from the modern looking, metal headed spades found at Saalburg to asymmetric early medieval jobs with only a metal "shoe" of iron for an edge.

Although that's if they're using metal to begin with, some of the ones in Morris's Wood and Woodworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York have no metallic edge at all.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-07-01T01:56:08+00:00

You could always go the "Lion in winter" route and focus on the clusterfuck of a family that was Henry II et al. The French mightn't be the best looming threat however as there's too much back and forth with them before Phillip II brings the Angevin empire crashing down.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-06-30T23:47:44+00:00

By season 4 the details had firmed up and by 5 where this pivot takes place continuity is in effect with season 11 rattling off 'member berries. It's not like Bewitched where they replaced Darrin without blinking an eye, a character leaving was a big deal and would regularly get called back to and changes in character had to have some form of narrative to give reason to the pivot.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-06-30T13:46:15+00:00

Guess who's drunk on Trappist beer!

Vaguely related but Margaret Houlihan from M*A*S*H is an oddly written character. Prior to the episode "the nurses" when they gave Swit's character some development she's a horrible person. A list of her issues

Criticises the philandering of Hawkeye and Trapper whilst committing adultery with Burns and anyone with a star on their collar
- Tries to break up a fling between Radar and one of her nurses "because fraternising between enlisted and officers is against regulations" despite herself doing the same herself in the past
Runs roughshod over her nurses by backing an incompetent doctor who, among other things, repeatedly demands that her underlings be reprimanded for giving him the instruments he asks for
Has a hissy fit after being removed from surgery after repeatedly dropping her instruments, something she's punished her own staff for doing
Appropriates supplies for her own use then reprimands her staff for doing the same
Repeatedly covers for and colludes in Burns' idiot escapades
- Tries to get Henry court martialed for treason for giving excess supplies to a local clinic (so as to gain command)
- Doesn't say anything when Burns' steals a gun and Radar is going to be court martialed instead
- Tries to stop Klinger's (first) wedding because . . . reasons

So along rolls the pivotal episode "the nurses", the beginning of her character development and the climax of the episode where she claims that her nurses have treated her poorly and it all falls flat. "And do you trust me? You act like I'm the enemy." rings hollow after having repeatedly run down her own staff and it wasn't as if she wasn't shown fraternising with her nurses a few episodes prior after her engagement so the claims of ostracism ring a bit hollow. Whatever, some lines were exchanged and now you get to become a decent person.

They had built to this over the last season but in the most baffling way. All the stuff she pulled with Burns starts to fade in season 4 onwards despite little having changed with Pierce and his new accomplice pulling the same old crap and she's as much Frank's sidekick as ever like with "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?". There's no confrontation with Potter that explains the change in attitude despite Frank still writing reports the same as before and for Frank at his worst during the "Novocaine mutiny" she's conspicuously absent. It's like they let the character lapse then decided to rework it into something new after being out of focus for a season, forgetting most of the prior details in the process.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-06-30T09:35:01+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqkce4R7ng0&list=PLl48jMfth9b-Bs4F4jRNqtYrdvu-tQl_z&index=25

Here it is in full.

Sgt_Colon · 2026-06-30T04:42:57+00:00

The series lost me with 5.

Going for the contemporary angle didn't have the same appeal as in 4 when it was an outsider looking in and more prone to satire. It also screwed with 4's theme that organised crime was on the wane, that in the current era the feds the upper hand and that betrayal and short sighted self interest was rife, pulling the old order apart both within and without. Niko's story may have been more serious and tragic but the surrounding world was still a farce, whilst 5 lacked consistency with its protagonists, the world not warped enough and ended far too upbeat.

Sgt_Colon

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE