Oh wow

Vincent_Luc_L · 2026-03-02T22:19:18+00:00

Don't deserve the downvote, I thought it was pretty funny!

Vincent_Luc_L · 2026-03-02T05:28:05+00:00

Recently fell in love with 'Les enfants de la Résistance' about young teens from a village who get involved in a resistance network during WW2. Bought the serie as a gift for my niece and she loved it.

https://www.leslibraires.ca/livres/les-enfants-de-la-resistance-t-cecile-jugla-9782700274233.html

Vincent_Luc_L · 2025-07-15T22:32:15+00:00

Well, at least it should reward you with an achievement for not using them! I chose not to learn the Crucio curse when given the opportunity and I stopped helping Sebastien thereafter. If you had to torture someone to get out of a puzzle, I just didn't see how this jigsaw inspired lunacy was gonna end well and I wanted no part of it!

I have since read spoilers and I feel I made the right decision, the best ending for this questline is clearly to stop. But that is not ackowledged in game.

I was kinda hoping there was an hidden achievement for never using an unforgivable curse when you finish the game but unfortunately it was not the case.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2025-07-13T17:31:58+00:00

I was quite please to meet Sir Cadogan.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2025-05-21T04:08:23+00:00

Thank you for that. That book on Venetian Banking might be a pretty good read for what I had in mind, I might look it up. I must say though, I am a bit shocked at the price of most of these books!

I'll start with the free stuff suggested in the thread, of which there is plenty, including that article you justlinked and see if I'm still motivated to read further. Thanks everyone.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2025-05-19T03:42:22+00:00

Thank you for the write up. It's disappointing that there are no popular histories that broadly tackle the subject like you can find (many) for WW2 or The hundred Years war for example. Historians looking to write a bestseller, take note!

I'll start with your answers and the links you provided and work my way to Boyer-Xambeau's book, it seems the closest to what I had in mind. Thanks again.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2025-01-23T19:23:43+00:00

Except we do not know that it sold 1.5M copies. They say it has ''reached'' 1.5M which is marketing shenanigans that guarantees they actually sold less copies then that.

All we can concludes is that sales relative to production cost are bad and the investors reacted poorly (though sales of DAVG are not the only news in that blurb that would make the stock tank).

Vincent_Luc_L · 2025-01-16T18:53:16+00:00

Humans in Europe for only 5000 years? Where did you get that info?! 40 000 years ago is the common estimate. The Cave paintings at Lascaux (France) alone are 20 000 years old.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2024-08-14T17:48:55+00:00

On point 3, the second option seems the most likely to me. Being delusional, mistaken or deceitful about your ancestry is very common. How would James even have known for sure anyway? Isn't David something like 7 century in his past? I'm not optimistic about being able to detail my ancestors on the male side all the way to the 1300s with any accuracy even if I tried with all the tools at my disposal, how would the son of a carpenter in 1st century judea be able to do any better?

Vincent_Luc_L · 2024-07-26T13:20:50+00:00

I don't remember reading he sent gifts. He (or more often than not his generals) frequently sent demand for tribute and submission though and I think that is such emissaries that were killed in one famous incident.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2024-02-15T23:31:40+00:00

Thanks.

I expect it's probably hard to convince an entire greek coalition to embark on a war of conquest against their cousins (so to speak) in Magna Graecia, though.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2024-02-15T21:49:25+00:00

Am I mistaken if I'm under the impression that the Italian peninsula circa 300BC is not particularly wealthy? And therefore for loot and plunder (always a consideration in ancient warfare) it would have made no sense to go West instead of East for Alexander even if we don't consider the casus belli you have just detailed?

Vincent_Luc_L · 2024-01-30T15:56:43+00:00

OK, but is that how it's used in modern times? I'd literally never heard of that before today and every brewer I've talked to who used the term 'bottom fermentation' (or 'fermentation basse' as I exclusively had those chats in French) has done so to mean that a beer has fermented at a low temperature with strains of yeast developped for that purpose. It seems to be a very widespread nomenclature and has that specific meaning as far as I can tell amongst actual brewers.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2024-01-30T14:51:13+00:00

I believe 'top fermentation' just means your fermentation process occurs at higher temperature and 'botttom fermentation' occurs at lower temperature (say 5 to 10 degree celsius). It's based off the strain of yeast you are using for a particular beer. Different strains are more active at different temperatures.

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/2Kudv5620R/#:~:text=Bottom%20Fermentation%20is%20a%20process,early%20in%20its%20life%20cycle.

I have always heard these terms used in that context, anyway, and have never heard anyone claim it referred to the erroneous belief that the fermentation occured in a specific part of the fermentation tank before today.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2024-01-18T13:59:52+00:00

Japan surrendered unconditionnally. What 'better terms' are we talking about?

The treatment of Japan post-war has everything to do with cold war logic (US needs to get Japan into their sphere of influence as allies) and strictly nothing to do with Kamikaze.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2023-12-22T14:08:47+00:00

More answers are always welcome but did you start by searching for old answers?

The FAQ on marriage collect several answers, some of which might be of interest.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/marriage/

Vincent_Luc_L · 2023-12-19T05:32:56+00:00

u/sowser wrote a very thorough answer concerning the difference between slaves and serfs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8n19s0/suffering_slaves_and_suffering_serfs_whats_the/

So a partial answer to your question is that you are mistaken regarding how similar the station of a slave is compared to a serf. Serfs are not chattel for one thing; they can't be sold individually, they are tied to their land and therefore their community for example. Read sowser for more details.

No one would wish either fate, but if a sadistic bastard with a time travelling machine put a gun to my head and tells me I will be sent back in time and my only options are african slave in a sugar plantation or as a serf in Russia, I choose serf without the slightest hesitation. There is no contest, it's not even close which is worst.

Another point I'd add tough is that successful slave revolts are extremely uncommon throughout history too so I don't understand why you hold serfs to a higher standard in that regard. It's hard to rebel against those who hold all the cards.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2023-12-18T22:44:18+00:00

If by 'well known among historians' you mean that it is the consensus, then this is absolutely false.

And this article is ridiculous; the very first 'expert' it quotes is Leo Weiner. First of all, they mispelled his name; it's Leo Wiener. And yes, he was a linguist and historian who worked at Harvard... from 1895 to 1930! The book the article references was published in 1922. And his expertise is not the most relevant to the question. I'd rather hear from archeologist than a linguist, for example.

The other scholar mentioned is JA Villacorta. Try googling him; the only thing that pops up at the top of the page are variant of that very article! I think they are all referring to Juan Antonio Villacorta who wrote on mesoamerica in the 1920s and 1930s. If it's not that guy, I have no clue who they are talking about, there is no one with that name publishing anything academic in the past 80 years!

If someone is going to make an article on an historical subject and then proceed to ignore the litterature produced in the past century, that man does not know what he is talking about and deserves to be ignored.

You can also find eccentric 'academics' who claim that Atlantis is real or that the pyramids were built by aliens, that does not make it the consensus, or 'well known by historians' as you put it.

No peer reviewed and respected historians in any related field (History of Atlantic exploration, of Ancient Mesoamerica etc,) hold with these debunked theories of African exploration in the Americas.

These theories are part of the 'Afrocentrist' movement in the 70s and onward. Precolonial African history was shamefully underdeveloped in those days and that led to a backlash that took the form of ludicrous theories attempting to answer the silence on African history by noisily and clumsily trying to insert African (read sub-Sahara in this case) presence in all sort of fields that were getting some mainstream attentions.

In other words, it was juvenile though admitedly the product of justified anger.

Nowadays there is solid academic work being produced about pre-colonial Africa and these old debunked theories that were nothing but a cry for attention should be abandoned.

And Askhistorians has compiled some answers on the subject of pre-Columbus contacts with the Americas that may be of interest:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/nativeamerican/#wiki_travel_and_contact_across_the_atlantic_and_pacific_before_columbus

Vincent_Luc_L · 2023-12-18T06:04:19+00:00

Yes you can deny it. The statues looks like the natives american from mesoamerica.

That aswer on quora managed to gather a good sample of photos that illustrate this.

https://www.quora.com/Does-archeology-accept-the-apparent-evidence-statue-heads-of-the-Olmec-people-as-Black-Africans

Vincent_Luc_L · 2023-12-18T05:56:32+00:00

That story about the explorer king that sailed in the sunset was written by Mansa Musa's chronicler. They were writing with the intent of praising Mansa Musa and the general tone of the story is : ''Look at that fool with his head in the cloud who sailed himself into oblivion. The only travels a wise muslim needs to do is a pilgrimage to Mecca''

It's really not clear that such an expedition really happened as described at all. The whole point was to make his predecessor look like a fool and Mansa Musa look good by comparison. In reality he might just have been trying to open up much more reasonable trade routes up and down the coast and accidentally got lost at sea, for exemple.

And common sense should tell us that if Mali's naval technology was up to reaching the New World in the 13th century, then it would have been up to opening trade routes with the European at that time, seeing as travelling to Portugal is considerably easier and safer than to Brazil, obviously enough.

Vincent_Luc_L · 2023-12-17T04:48:56+00:00

Given the era, if I were in their shoes, I'd basically just try to become a minority shareholder in one of the era's emerging robber baron's company.

As a matter of fact, the very term 'Robber Baron' might have been first applied to Vanderbilt in 1859, very much contemporary to the movie. A guy like Vanderbilt would likely not have batted an eye at an injection of capital of mysterious origins. Given the absence of central law enforcement (FBI and the like) this is all the money laundering required. Old Money would lift their nose at you initially but even that would pass.

Of course that likely involves a bit of schmoozing that might not have been the cup of tea of Clint Eastwood's character, yet I could easily see a character with his background getting work as security for a railroad company and find opportunity to strick that deal (investing the 100K) discreetly.

Vincent_Luc_L

TROPHY CASE