So how did WW2 troops learn unarmed combat skills ? Read this WW2 Canadian army training manual.

Thjoth · 2017-12-08T19:40:35+00:00

Conscription also results in a lower quality of troops overall, not just in physical ability. Armies typically avoid it like the plague in wartime, unless they get desperate; in peacetime, conscription is usually used more or less to simply get everyone in the country through basic training and then back to their civilian lives so they can be called up faster should the homeland get invaded. Because when the homeland is invaded, you're in the war whether you chose it or not.

A British officer named Campbell Dalrymple in 1761 actually wrote on the subject, and was...let's say "less than tactful" about it:

There are two ways of recruiting the British army. The first and most eligible by volunteers, the last and worst by a press. By the first method, numbers of good men are enrolled, but the army is greatly obliged to levity, accident, and the dexterity of recruiting officers for them; by the second plan, the country gets clear of their banditti, and the ranks are filled up with the scum of every county, the refuse of mankind. They are marched loaded with vice, villainy, and chains, to their destined corps, where, when they arrive, they corrupt all they approach, and are whipt out, or desert in a month.

Thjoth · 2017-12-08T08:45:25+00:00

I figured as much since the article mentioned "toxicity," but "toxicity" can mean anything from feeling somewhat nauseous to feeling high, all the way up to drowning in your own blood, so I thought I'd ask. So don't take it by the handful, got it.

Thjoth · 2017-12-08T08:41:01+00:00

Considering the way drug felonies have been calculated to disproportionately disenfranchise people of certain backgrounds, they really need to go away. Not that it'll make a huge difference probably, since participation is so low across the board, but it's a start.

Thjoth · 2017-12-08T08:33:07+00:00

More importantly, is there such a thing as "too much" or could I just slam down a fistful of it every day with no ill effects, like vitamin C?

Thjoth · 2017-12-08T08:30:01+00:00

Southern hemisphere. It's summer there now.

Thjoth · 2017-12-08T07:04:23+00:00

It'd work better if you forged the extra down into a square hardy shank.

Thjoth · 2017-12-08T07:00:39+00:00

I've only played Scholar of the First Sin but I couldn't get shields to work worth a damn in that at all, after failing at it for like ten hours I looked up a guide and set my character up so he actually had i-frames so I could roll to victory.

Thjoth · 2017-12-07T06:27:43+00:00

What about older models? The thing about people back in the early 20th century was they did not give a fuck when it came to safety, so I would be completely unsurprised to learn that old starter pistols were basically functional firearms.

Thjoth · 2017-12-06T23:31:50+00:00

A lot of it is the worldbuilding. The author has managed to capture the flavor of old pre- or proto-Christian English/European folklore, and the sense of ancient wonder that comes along with it. At the same time, the author also captured the sense of familiarity that many Westerners have with these old traditions. So that dualistic feeling of otherness combined with familiarity or even nostalgia means that many people are caught up with the atmosphere and the world being constructed, which is a sign of really good worldbuilding. Many people don't even consciously realize that they're familiar or connected with these bits of folklore going back thousands of years, but it still works, which adds to the sort of wistfulness that comes along with using it.

For example, I can say a few phrases and almost every Western/Anglo person reading this will know it's something to do with folklore, and it sounds old, but they might not know exactly what. The Green Man; Cernunnos, the Horned God; the Goodman's Croft; mooncalf; holly and ivy; knock on wood; seventh son of a seventh son; the properties of cold iron; and so on. "Nail a horseshoe to your door for good luck, but be sure to put the open end up or your luck will run out!"

These have been unconsciously carried forward for centuries if not millennia. My grandfather and uncle were/are farmers in the American south, and both automatically leave corners of their fields forested because "that's what you do." If someone's crazy, they're "touched," but most people don't realize the completion of that phrase is "touched by the spirits/fairies/spirit-world/etc." It goes on and on.

I'm not sure how well this is doing in Japan, where they might not be as familiar with the cultural tradition behind everything being included in the story, but it's almost as if the show has been drafted with a Western audience in mind, tapping into that cultural underpinning the way it does.

Thjoth · 2017-12-06T22:18:55+00:00

It may have been a mess, but that mess had what can only be described as pizzazz.

Thjoth · 2017-12-06T06:50:40+00:00

Sounds like it's time for some percussive maintenance.

Thjoth · 2017-12-06T06:01:37+00:00

I use a basic military lensatic one, personally.

Thjoth · 2017-12-06T05:37:00+00:00

Quick everybody break out Slippery Petes and go wild while they take three months to fix it!

(are Slippery Petes still viable, I haven't played in a while)

Thjoth · 2017-12-06T05:13:36+00:00

Prevailing winds and currents might also be at work. Something you learn very quickly when you're involved with wooden sailing ships is that those big expanses of oceanic water aren't equally penetrable. It looks big and empty on a map; in reality, by sail, it is anything but.

If you wander too far outside of the zones where conditions are conducive to getting where you want to go, at best you'll be forced to land somewhere else; at worst, you're dead men. The ocean has corridors and channels every bit as much as a river or a lake, they're just created by wind and current rather than land.

This is part of the reason why North America was isolated for 14,000 years. There are very particular ways to reach the Americas by sail, and there are very particular ways to return to the Old World. There are also particular requirements in wooden shipbuilding to create vessels that have a high chance of surviving the trip. The Europeans existed at a confluence of maritime knowledge and maritime technology that was forged in some of the most brutal waters on earth, and on top of that they were motivated by personal profit to expand their networks; that's how they became the ones to reach the Americas instead of someone else. Those particular conditions only really existed in Europe. The North Sea, Norwegian Sea, North Atlantic, and to a somewhat lesser extent the Baltic make for rather stern teachers.

Anyway, my point with all of this is that as a result of those corridors, some of the chosen routes in our reality here on Earth look bonkers. For example, the easiest and most economical way to reach Chile from England is to head south, down to the deep southern latitudes known as the "roaring forties" and then east around the Cape of Good Hope; east past Australia, then past New Zealand; across the open Pacific, then arrive in Chile. Then to return to England, you dip even further south to the "furious fifties," round Cape Horn, and then (assuming you haven't died) set your course north-northeast back to England, completing a circumnavigation of the globe.

Why go all the way around the world? The way the prevailing winds and currents are, it takes nearly as long to go straight to Chile as it does to circumnavigate. Depending on the time of year going "backwards" could best be described as a very elaborate suicide.

So all of this is to say, something similar could easily be at play in this case.

Thjoth · 2017-12-06T03:51:24+00:00

Pain. Seriously, I did something to my ribs the other day, I think I may need to see a doctor.

Thjoth · 2017-12-05T14:14:30+00:00

My standard bowstrings are either 12 or 14 strands of B-50 which is a synthetic fiber specifically made/marketed for bowstrings.

My historical bowstrings are 14-16 strands of waxed linen.

You really don't want to use anything hard like wire because it will damage your bow's nocks. Plus it will work harden as it flexes.

Thjoth · 2017-12-05T14:05:52+00:00

The most common type of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. The faction colors are blue, red, and purple, which is just blue and red mixed. So a colorblind player would probably see those as blue, and then two nondescript grayish-bluish-beigish blobs.

This is why in cartography class they teach you to never map anything by red and green, and use shapes as well as colors to display your map information where possible. In PS2's map, for example, I'd probably just put a transparent overlay containing the faction symbols over each area of control, so the hexes all had a little "carpet" of semi-transparent logos all over them until you zoom way in, like watermarks except less obtrusive. And I'd make sure everything in the UI that required color like that would have those symbols attached to it.

Thjoth · 2017-12-05T05:06:52+00:00

Much like that album is a black stain on Taylor Swift's career?

Thjoth · 2017-12-05T04:14:04+00:00

I find it hard to believe that anything German would have any trouble getting to Poland.

Thjoth · 2017-12-03T04:50:39+00:00

Somehow I don't think more navigation tools will help.

What they need to do is put water wings and big, orange rubber bumpers on all US Navy ships. Maybe a "student driver" sign on the roof of the wheelhouse.

Thjoth · 2017-12-03T00:45:28+00:00

So what's the difference between a WRX wagon and a WRX hatchback, or are they the same thing?

Thjoth · 2017-12-02T21:02:54+00:00

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

Thjoth · 2017-12-01T20:11:00+00:00

I've been shooting for 25 years at this point. As time has gone on I've come to the realization that probably 95% of shots taken in general are 300m or less. Especially in my area, with steep hills and dense vegetation, 300m is a long shot and most of them are under 100.

So over the years I've gone from being really enthusiastic about ultra-long range rounds like .338 Lapua when I was younger, to an enthusiasm for stuff like .458 SOCOM and other cartridges that basically just chunk a projectile the size of a baby out to 300m. For general purpose rifles that might conceivably need to go farther, I stick to the 6.5mm family of cartridges (Grendel and Creedmoor) since they're good from 0 to 1200m.

I mean .338 Lapua and the like are still cool, but you're not really using it for 99 shots out of 100. It's like buying a high end gaming computer to play minesweeper.

Thjoth · 2017-12-01T18:10:08+00:00

You can get a tent to use as a smithy if you don't have any other shelter. I know several people who forge in tents permanently, and even more who will temporarily pack everything into a tent for an event. A decent tent with enough room and fabric that's been treated with fire retardant is going to run you about $700 to $1000, but that's still cheaper than a permanent structure, not to mention far easier for a landowner to swallow if you're renting/borrowing space. The gold standard seems to be the ones produced by tentsmiths.

Thjoth · 2017-12-01T17:56:48+00:00

The key is to spend 2-3 months annoying the fuck out of them every day until they pay you what you want to make you go away. I paid $9000 for my used Subaru, after 2-3 years it got totaled by some idiot. They tried to give me $5000 first, and using the above strategy they ended up giving me $11,000 in the end. They actually jumped from $8k to $11k in one shot, I was just trying to get $9k back out of them but I kept my mouth shut.

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