The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

Was looking up HRE rulers, and came across Richard of Cornwall who was on the throne in 13th century. This is a roughly contemporary depiction of his ... looks a bit like a CK2 portrait (which might not be a coincidence?).

[Syt]

Geo Epoche is a German that comes out quarterly. It's about a specific historic subject, about 150 pages, and each longer article comes with book recommendations. I especially liked their "Roman" series - Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Migrations Period, Byzantium (I think there was one about the Ottomans, which I missed ).

The current one is about the War of the Roses period in Britain.

And while I knew that GRR Martin modeled (well, models, the writing is still ongoing ) A Song of Ice and Fire quite loosely on the War of the Roses, it took me till now to realize where he got some names ...

Lancaster => Lannister
York => Stark
 

[Habbaku]

  Rosebud was the sled, Syt.

[Syt]

Rosebud was the sled, Syt.

[Tonitrus]

Humble Bundle has 60 1980s/90s Battletech novels for €16.30: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/battletech-fiction-catalyst-game-labs-books

Oh gosh I read so many of those books when I was younger.  So very, very bad - but so very, very good.

I will decline to purchase the bundle however.

Perfect description of those!

I read many of them totally out of order since for me their availability depended on when the German translation was done and when the local book store decided to stock them. I was very confused by the overall storylines.

I thought Heir To the Dragon was quite good myself. 

[grumbler]

Geo Epoche is a German that comes out quarterly. It's about a specific historic subject, about 150 pages, and each longer article comes with book recommendations. I especially liked their "Roman" series - Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Migrations Period, Byzantium (I think there was one about the Ottomans, which I missed ).

The current one is about the War of the Roses period in Britain.

And while I knew that GRR Martin modeled (well, models, the writing is still ongoing ) A Song of Ice and Fire quite loosely on the War of the Roses, it took me till now to realize where he got some names ...

Lancaster => Lannister
York => Stark
 

I continue to hold that the French Wars of Religion, especially the War of the Three Henris, is a much closer historical analogue to ASOIAF.  The controlling widow queen (with the steadily dwindling supply of offspring), the Red Wedding/St Bart's Day, multiple houses struggling for control, etc.

[Duque de Bragança]

Geo Epoche is a German that comes out quarterly. It's about a specific historic subject, about 150 pages, and each longer article comes with book recommendations. I especially liked their "Roman" series - Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Migrations Period, Byzantium (I think there was one about the Ottomans, which I missed ).

The current one is about the War of the Roses period in Britain.

And while I knew that GRR Martin modeled (well, models, the writing is still ongoing ) A Song of Ice and Fire quite loosely on the War of the Roses, it took me till now to realize where he got some names ...

Lancaster => Lannister
York => Stark
 

I continue to hold that the French Wars of Religion, especially the War of the Three Henris, is a much closer historical analogue to ASOIAF.  The controlling widow queen (with the steadily dwindling supply of offspring), the Red Wedding/St Bart's Day, multiple houses struggling for control, etc.

Interesting. 

[Oexmelin]

Martin borrowed mostly (and heavily) from the French and British 15th and 16th century, with a dash of "The Accursed Kings", a series of French novels from the 1950s (later two TV series) set in the 14th century, which Martin recognized as an inspiration. There are some explicit analogs (the Black Dinner of Scottish history = the Red Wedding; York, Stark, Lancaser, Lannister, etc), some archtypes of the time (the ambitious schemer = Littlefinger = Cromwell, Savonarola), and some evocations (indeed, Cersei maps well with Catherine of Medici).
In a way, the analogue is not one specific war, but rather the transformation of dynastic politics of the 15th - 16th century. 16th century England was less of a "composite polity" than France (it was more centralized), which means that Westeros' powerful dynasts are closer to French ones than their English counterparts.

   

[Josquius]

TIL.

Always knew American and British sign language were different. But I didn't realise quite how different.
Rather than being English, You cannot see attachments on this board. American sign language derives from French sign language.

[Oexmelin]

Yes. The French were pioneers in making sign language accessible and devising methods to teach it outside of more circumscribed deaf communities as early as the 18th century. 

[Sheilbh]

Official count in Turkey has opposition candidate ahead of Erdogan on 49/45% - but there are parallel counts so state TV has only just announced that Erdogan is below 50%.

It seems a bit like 2020 - Erdogan's areas counted and reported quickly, while the AKP are challenging every ballot box in opposition areas and getting as many recounts as possible to delay things. For example one Ankara polling station is now on their 11th recount despite, apparently, the recounts not really showing any difference in the figures.

The opposition are being very aggressive (which is necessary - they're actually going toe to toe with AKP on this) and saying that based on the reports they've received (including challenged ballot boxes) they're over 50% which means no run-off.

A run-off still seems more likely, but the big story is that Erdogan has lost the first round (and it's likely even state TV may have to end up reporting this). But it'll be a long night. The overseas vote is still to come in - it looks like diaspora Turks have not been mobilised by AKP as normal - though they're still expected to win that vote (Britain's slightly unusual as the opposition or Kurdish parties normally win, because of the background of Turks here). Although it looks like the opposition could get over 50%, less sure about Erdogan. This is from opposition TV but is reporting the official vote count as of now-ish:

[grumbler]

Yes. The French were pioneers in making sign language accessible and devising methods to teach it outside of more circumscribed deaf communities as early as the 18th century. 

And their system was well-thought-out and needed only one hand - both of them advantages over the "common law" BANZSL.  Of course, they had lots of hindsight because of their own previous ad hoc sign languages.

[Tamas]

Of course the UK just had to go and be special about it. 

[Josquius]

Official count in Turkey has opposition candidate ahead of Erdogan on 49/45% - but there are parallel counts so state TV has only just announced that Erdogan is below 50%.

It seems a bit like 2020 - Erdogan's areas counted and reported quickly, while the AKP are challenging every ballot box in opposition areas and getting as many recounts as possible to delay things. For example one Ankara polling station is now on their 11th recount despite, apparently, the recounts not really showing any difference in the figures.

The opposition are being very aggressive (which is necessary - they're actually going toe to toe with AKP on this) and saying that based on the reports they've received (including challenged ballot boxes) they're over 50% which means no run-off.

A run-off still seems more likely, but the big story is that Erdogan has lost the first round (and it's likely even state TV may have to end up reporting this). But it'll be a long night. The overseas vote is still to come in - it looks like diaspora Turks have not been mobilised by AKP as normal - though they're still expected to win that vote (Britain's slightly unusual as the opposition or Kurdish parties normally win, because of the background of Turks here). Although it looks like the opposition could get over 50%, less sure about Erdogan. This is from opposition TV but is reporting the official vote count as of now-ish:

49.49% for erdogen.
It's a run off.
This bodes badly.

Looking at the reporting what seems particularly painful is that expats lean pro erdogen

[celedhring]

Yeah, the results - doctored or not - don't bode well for a runoff.