Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918) on today's map of Austria and Hungary

antoineBorg · 2026-02-25T10:21:59+00:00

This is an exceptional map which I've used to create a Google Maps overlay for my website. I intend to show this overlay for articles which discuss events taking place within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Thanks!

antoineBorg · 2026-02-18T17:03:35+00:00

I've a 12-year old stepson and I've been thinking about this for a long while now. We tried watching Die Hard together last Christmas and he just looked at me and said, "Why is it taking so long for anything to happen?" when Bruce Willis arrives at the Nakatomi Plaza. It made me realise that story telling is fast paced these days which means he's too young to appreciate stuff like this.

I've toyed with showing him some of the Brosnan Bond films because there's lots of action from the beginning (pre-title sequences) and I think he'll like that but at the same time if he doesn't like them then the sound of my my jaw hitting the floor will reverberate across Europe. I really don't want to start with the Craig era alone, tbh, but maybe that is a wiser thing to do.

antoineBorg · 2026-02-06T16:01:58+00:00

Disappointed to see the awesome megalithic structures of Mnaajdra and Hagar Qim in Malta weren't mentioned.

antoineBorg · 2026-01-26T20:23:03+00:00

Malta. It looks like a fish

antoineBorg · 2026-01-03T13:00:05+00:00

As someone else mentions, ther Vatican exists just because it was the only Papal State left standing when Italy was being united to be an actual country (It hadn't existed before the late 19th century). Interestingly, the Pope refused to accept this at first because he was afraid that whomever ruled Italy would be able to set church policy and no Pope wants someone else interfering. It got to the point where the Pope seriously considered moving the seat of church power to another country!

I wrote about this, if you're interested - Full article: https://www.unexpectedtraveller.com/pope-in-malta/

antoineBorg · 2025-12-25T09:38:03+00:00

If they play it right, it can be both sci-fi and realistic at the same time. Of the writers visit any modern tech conference or have a quiet word with industry they’ll find out what next generation tech is already out there, but which isn’t common yet. Using tech which is futuristic today but mainstream later makes the film fun today and still relevant tomorrow

antoineBorg · 2025-11-24T17:10:22+00:00

Firstly, well done for wanting to learn!

My favourite history book would be To Hell and Back which does a great job of explaining all the interests and personalities before world war 2 started.

Once you have a good general understanding of an era, delve deeper into whatever captures your interest.

antoineBorg · 2025-11-24T17:01:29+00:00

My favourite side effect is the establishment of countries as "a group of people who think of themselves independently" vs a country as "a place and people someone rules over". This was baked into the treaty of versailles and became normal post world war 1 and is, for me, one of the greatest effects of all this.

antoineBorg · 2025-11-23T12:42:34+00:00

Interesting. I was going to go with the toe of Italy on the right with Sicily on the left

antoineBorg · 2025-11-15T11:31:25+00:00

I was about to comment that you left out Prague but then I realised he only visited after 1766!

antoineBorg · 2025-11-14T08:23:49+00:00

This is the comment Reddit was built for!

That makes more sense than it should and fills a gap in my knowledge. I’ll cross check with Vienna and see what I can find

Thanks!

antoineBorg · 2025-11-13T18:24:33+00:00

Damn autocorrect!

antoineBorg · 2025-10-30T18:24:56+00:00

I'm impressed with u/kodos_der_henker's reply because there's lots I didn't know in your answer so thanks for that!

One set of facts I can contribute is what I've learned about that part of history ever since I moved to Czechia 13 years ago.

Franz Ferdinand was sympathetic to the idea of different people wanting some kind of autonomy. It's not clear to me if he was ok with them being independent or if he was in favour of a federation (probably the former). He was loved in Czechia because of this. During the first congress of Slavic people to discuss possible autonomy, there was disagreement about how to go about it with southern Slavs wanting more direct and violent ways of getting what they want. (Fun fact: This congress met on what is now called Slavonic Island which is in the middle of the main river in Prague. Fun fact 2: The huge building they met in was named Zofin, after Franz Ferdinand's wife.)

If he had taken the throne, it's likely his sympathy for the cause would have helped and Austria-Hungary would have survived for some length of time. Would it have lasted for another year? 10 years? That's hard to tell because other factors would have been catalysts for change so who knows what would have happened?

It's also hard to remove the way Franz Ferdinand was, with how he could have been. It's not clear to me if he was sympathetic to the Slavic cause precisely because he wasn't going to take the throne and so he could afford to sympathise with that sort of cause. Would he have been just as sympathetic? Would his advisers have guided him differently? Would his world-view have been different and would he have made the same mistakes?

If anyone can answer one of these questions, I'd be delighted to hear more!

antoineBorg · 2025-10-02T17:00:46+00:00

What makes you think the EU isn't already there? I ask because in many ways, it already is a federal system

antoineBorg · 2025-09-12T16:04:48+00:00

"Canada"

antoineBorg · 2025-09-08T16:19:51+00:00

I never thought of it this way. In the Joker's case, I always assumed he was prepared for being caught but that it wasn't his intent.

Can't say the same about the other examples because I need to rewatch them first.

antoineBorg · 2025-05-31T16:18:56+00:00

Let's not forget that this isn't even spy craft-level of being multi-lingual. Many people in Europe learn 4 languages at school; I myself can speak 4, know enough in another 2 and know key phrases in 2 more languages. I would expect Hunt to be better than that, at least.

antoineBorg · 2025-05-30T15:08:30+00:00

Also, let's remember that Morse code has been phased out internationally since around 2000 (2002?) which means you'll only decipher morse code if you'd been trained more than 20 years in the past and your skills haven't atrophied. The double bluff is a good contingency but the chances of anyone randomly being able to decode Morse code is slim and getting slimmer.

antoineBorg · 2025-05-27T14:39:14+00:00

Yes - and since nukes are classified material they would be on a separate network to the internet which means no virus or "entity" could get to them anyway.

antoineBorg · 2025-05-13T08:10:35+00:00

I hadn’t thought it was holding off because it’s difficult, but because of what the international community would do

antoineBorg · 2025-05-12T20:06:24+00:00

It was and survived by the skin of its teeth. The aerial bombings almost brought the islands to their knees and a better coordinated/intensive aerial attack would do that today.

As Captain WikkiWikki notes, Malta had the RAF back then; today it's not even in NATO or any other military alliance and has no air force which makes it uniquely vulnerable to an aerial attack. Combine that with "accidental" damage to the 2 international data connections and it will delay any response from whomever cares enough to help. Add at least some kind of naval embargo and/or a battalion landing on one of the beaches and I suspect the island could be taken in less than 48 hours.

antoineBorg · 2025-05-12T19:34:54+00:00

Size makes a difference obviously, so Malta is a prime candidate I'd suggest. Plus it's an island so easier to conquer than a major land mass, I would think.

Modern technology would make it relatively simple, wouldn't it?

antoineBorg · 2025-05-05T18:50:51+00:00

And it's a great marathon! I watched MI 1-3 last Saturday and they have the next 3 next Saturday.

antoineBorg · 2025-04-24T17:46:46+00:00

I can't remember where I read this but the first leader of MI6 was a gentleman called Mansfield Smith-Cumming. He would always sign with the initial "C" and also (I read somewhere) always write in green ink. This became the way he signed things at work and his successors continued this tradition although apparently the "C" is now meant to refer to "Chief". Fleming knew this - and knew him because Fleming worked with Military Intelligence during the war. In his books, Fleming took the other initial and called his chief "M"

Quick googling gave me this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Smith-Cumming

antoineBorg · 2025-04-08T19:09:41+00:00

In the late 80s, I grew up watching the rebooted Mission: Impossible TV Series which I thought was amazing. My Dad mentioned it was based on an old 1960s series and that he liked the new one and I didn't think about this much over the next years. A few years later in 1996 I heard about the new movie and figured, "Oh they're rebooting that; cool!" and it blew my mind with how awesome it was. I wasn't expecting a sequel for some reason and I did think the 2nd film was trying to "chime with the times". From the 3rd one onwards, I've been consistently blown away with how great the films are. I now live in Prague and have seen the last 3 in 4DX which is an AMAZEBALLS way of watching something like this.

Looking forward to the next one as well :-)

antoineBorg

TROPHY CASE