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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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The Brain

#3165
October 04, 2016, 01:48:28 PM
Old Mexico? Is there a New Mexico?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

11B4V

#3166
October 07, 2016, 10:33:28 PM
7 & 7 and some light reading.

"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Valmy

#3167
October 07, 2016, 11:04:23 PM
St. Privat was one hell of a struggle.

Solferino and Gravelotte are kind of bizarre. Two massive and decisive battles in European history that have all but been forgotten it seems.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

CountDeMoney

#3168
October 07, 2016, 11:07:07 PM
Solferino will always be the battle that created the Red Cross.

11B4V

#3169
October 07, 2016, 11:34:59 PM
Quote from: Valmy on October 07, 2016, 11:04:23 PM
St. Privat was one hell of a struggle.

Solferino and Gravelotte are kind of bizarre. Two massive and decisive battles in European history that have all but been forgotten it seems.

The Prussian should have lost that Spicheren, Mars la Tour, and Gravelotte. That's what fascinates me.
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Admiral Yi

#3170
October 08, 2016, 01:05:38 AM
Quote from: 11B4V on October 07, 2016, 11:34:59 PM
The Prussian should have lost that Spicheren, Mars la Tour, and Gravelotte. That's what fascinates me.

Make your case.  I don't know Spicheren, but they had the numbers and equipment at Mars la Tour and Gravelotte, and the position at Mars la Tour.

11B4V

#3171
October 08, 2016, 02:57:29 AM Last Edit: October 08, 2016, 03:38:45 AM by 11B4V
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 08, 2016, 01:05:38 AM
Quote from: 11B4V on October 07, 2016, 11:34:59 PM
The Prussian should have lost that Spicheren, Mars la Tour, and Gravelotte. That's what fascinates me.

Make your case.  I don't know Spicheren, but they had the numbers and equipment at Mars la Tour and Gravelotte, and the position at Mars la Tour.

Prussians
Spicheren the prussians committed piecemeal. Roughly even match in numbers. French failed in critical reconnaissance and indecision. They had the forces to kick Steimetz reckless ass had they not been indecisive.



Mars la Tour prussians were heavily outnumbered in a meeting engagement and the Prussian committed their forces piecemeal again. They had no idea they were engaging the French Army of the Rhine. Alvensleben thought it was a rear guard. Really Yi, the Prussians had the numbers? You know nothing of the battle in that case. Study more.

Gravelotte prussians committed piecemeal again. Lack coordination. French command indecision saved a reckless Steinmetz again. Steinmetz was relieved of command after Gravelotte-St. Privat for nearly costing the battle.

Had the French been led with just a hint of ability. Those three battles most and likely would have turned out very poorly for the Prussians. They got lucky in all three.

Try reading something. Quit wasting my time.
Ascoli's Day of Battle
Henderson's Battle of Spicheren
etc.





"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Ed Anger

#3172
October 08, 2016, 08:52:59 AM
Yeah, don't take Yi's crap.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

CountDeMoney

#3173
October 08, 2016, 01:09:54 PM
Western Washington University drives the paint and dunks on Harvard, film at 11.

11B4V

#3174
October 28, 2016, 08:10:08 PM
Read Pfanz's Gettysburg 1st Day and on to his Second day of Gettysburg.
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Savonarola

#3175
November 09, 2016, 08:26:22 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on July 25, 2016, 09:38:36 AM
In anticipation of the upcoming Trump presidency I read Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke; now I have the strangest urge to buy a pair of pleated pants :unsure:.

;)

This book has some faults.  Like Cicero (whom Burke quotes extensively) before him, Burke is stuck trying to make the case that the then existing order was the best possible government.  Also Burke wasn't the best informed about the state of revolutionary France; his description of the October March, for instance, verges on an high drama.  Even so, the book is remarkably prescient; from 1790 he foresaw the death of the King and Queen (though he thought Marie Antoinette would be killed first), the counter revolutions, the terror, and the rise of a military dictatorship.  His explanation as to why the disaster was to unfold (that it was based purely on the abstract and done by people with no experience in government) I find satisfactory; though there are certainly other interpretations.  (Hannah Arendt thought it was because the French cared about the poor.  The American Revolution was considerably more successful since we did not; a trend that's lived on for 240 years, and counting.   ;))

The book is filled with a number of quotes from antiquity.  One that I'm keeping in mind for the Trump presidency is from a play by Naevius: "Tell me how did you ruin so mighty a state so quickly?"

How I hate it when the joke is on me. <_<
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

#3176
November 09, 2016, 08:29:59 PM
Anyhow I read the Book of Ecclesiastes today and came across this line, which seemed relevant to the campaign:

Ecclesiastes 7:10:
QuoteSay not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Syt

#3177
November 10, 2016, 01:11:30 AM
Quote from: Valmy on October 07, 2016, 11:04:23 PM
Gravelotte

For Prussia/Germany, Sedan was the iconic battle of that war and that took major prominence in remembrance.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Syt

#3178
November 10, 2016, 01:11:57 AM
Quote from: Savonarola on November 09, 2016, 08:26:22 PM
How I hate it when the joke is on me. <_<

What's up next, "It Can't Happen Here"? :P
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Malthus

#3179
November 10, 2016, 09:27:55 AM
There is a brand new book on the expeditions of Stephens and Catherwood!  :thumbsup:

https://www.amazon.ca/Jungle-Stone-Extraordinary-Discovery-Civilization/dp/0062407392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478787595&sr=8-1&keywords=jungle+of+stone

I always thought this was one of the most exciting stories in the history of archaeology (it is about the pair who first popularized the discovery of the ancient Maya ruins - and made a truly incredible, in some ways never surpassed, series of detailed drawings of their artifacts - along the way having all sorts of bizarre adventures, a sort of cross between innocents abroad and Indiana Jones). Though I wonder what new this particular book brings to the tale.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius
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