Things you learned in school that are no longer true.

Started by Razgovory, February 17, 2015, 01:12:49 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages 1 ... 5 6 7 8 9
User actions

Siege

#120
February 18, 2015, 02:11:43 PM
I hate documentaries, specially "historical" documentaries.

It is a far more efficient use of my time to actually read a research paper and agree or disagree with its conclusions than waste my time watching a documemtary with a revisionist interpretation of historical facts and a completely retarded re-enactment of what actually happened.
Tip for historical documentary makers: People do not fight with swords to clash one sword with the other, but to stick the other guy with the pointy end of his sword.


"All men are created equal, then some become infantry."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!"

Valmy

#121
February 18, 2015, 02:15:54 PM
Quote from: Siege on February 18, 2015, 02:11:43 PM
revisionist interpretation of historical facts

Is there such a thing as a non-revisionist interpretation?  I guess only if you are the first historian to ever have an opinion on something.
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."

Siege

#122
February 18, 2015, 02:19:32 PM
Quote from: Valmy on February 18, 2015, 11:50:02 AM
I guess it depends upon what you mean by 'discovered'. I mean not even Columbus claimed people had never been to the New World before.  His discovery was not the only discovery of the New World in history, but it was the most significant one since people walked across the Bering Straight all those Millennia before.

Its the technological capability to got there and back, allowing for the economical exploit of the discovery.
I can easily see a phoenician or cartaginian vessel being pushed by weather to the Americas, but I can't see it as easily being able to return to Europe. More likely they had to stay and were asimilated by the indians. I mean, native-americans.
Eventually, we shall be able to understand the human genome to the point of identifying all past generations.


"All men are created equal, then some become infantry."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!"

Siege

#123
February 18, 2015, 02:19:57 PM
Quote from: Valmy on February 18, 2015, 02:15:54 PM
Quote from: Siege on February 18, 2015, 02:11:43 PM
revisionist interpretation of historical facts

Is there such a thing as a non-revisionist interpretation?  I guess only if you are the first historian to ever have an opinion on something.

Valid point.


"All men are created equal, then some become infantry."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!"

Eddie Teach

#124
February 18, 2015, 02:21:24 PM
Quote from: Siege on February 18, 2015, 02:11:43 PM
Tip for historical documentary makers: People do not fight with swords to clash one sword with the other, but to stick the other guy with the pointy end of his sword.

Tip for Siege: People who get stabbed while reenacting sword fights for a documentary have costly medical bills.

Besides, sticking the other guy with the pointy end of your sword is generally going to be prioritized below preventing him from sticking you with his sword. So frequent parrying is to be expected.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

grumbler

#125
February 18, 2015, 02:32:14 PM
Quote from: Siege on February 18, 2015, 02:11:43 PM
Tip for historical documentary makers: People do not fight with swords to clash one sword with the other, but to stick the other guy with the pointy end of his sword.

Not necessarily.  there were 'edge" schools of swordplay as well (cavalry sabers and scimitars being entirely edge-based weapons).  Now, I absolutely agree with the contention that too many sword fights in reenactments or historical fiction feature fights in which the two essentially attack each others' sword because it looks more dramatic (see Game of Thrones for a whole lotta bad sword fights - one point fighter would have wiped out every military person in Westeros, given time), but sword fights weren't all about stabbing, either.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Malthus

#126
February 18, 2015, 02:34:23 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on February 18, 2015, 12:44:11 PM
I had a teacher who claimed that armadillos were reptiles,

Reminds me of:

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/11/03
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

Malthus

#127
February 18, 2015, 02:45:57 PM
Quote from: grumbler on February 18, 2015, 02:32:14 PM
Quote from: Siege on February 18, 2015, 02:11:43 PM
Tip for historical documentary makers: People do not fight with swords to clash one sword with the other, but to stick the other guy with the pointy end of his sword.

Not necessarily.  there were 'edge" schools of swordplay as well (cavalry sabers and scimitars being entirely edge-based weapons).  Now, I absolutely agree with the contention that too many sword fights in reenactments or historical fiction feature fights in which the two essentially attack each others' sword because it looks more dramatic (see Game of Thrones for a whole lotta bad sword fights - one point fighter would have wiped out every military person in Westeros, given time), but sword fights weren't all about stabbing, either.

If you see well-versed historical reinactors fighting in full armour, it looks nothing like the movie version - also nothing like what I would have expected.

What it looks like is essentially wrestling, with the sword used sorta like a can-opener.  :lol: Basically, the sword is often held half-way up the blade, and the combatants attempt to ram the end into each other's faces, armpits, necks or groins, or catch the other guy around the neck; lots of grappling and levering, with the ultimate aim of jabbing a point somewhere where it will do damage.

http://www.thearma.org/essays/armoredlongsword.html

The edge is, of course, useless against a guy in full armour.
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

Martinus

#128
February 20, 2015, 01:34:33 AM
I guess one other thing I was taught is that the universe was this cold, rational place operating according to the rules of reason, and not the maddening abode of eldritch horrors older than the time itself.

Razgovory

#129
February 20, 2015, 01:45:23 AM
Quote from: Martinus on February 20, 2015, 01:34:33 AM
I guess one other thing I was taught is that the universe was this cold, rational place operating according to the rules of reason, and not the maddening abode of eldritch horrors older than the time itself.

The transition to law school can be tough.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017
Print
Go Up Pages 1 ... 5 6 7 8 9
User actions