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Milestones
- Thread starter admihoek
- Start date
Yes, many prisoners of war, most of them arrested in Belarus
poem21045
Tribunus Plebis
I just realized that, this year, CruxDreams has been around for 20 years!
Congrats to @ImageMaker and to the late, great Makar. Pioneers (and savvy businessmen!).
Congrats to @ImageMaker and to the late, great Makar. Pioneers (and savvy businessmen!).
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
In the evening of the 18th of July of the year 64 AD (so, 1960 years ago), fire broke out in Rome, in merchant shops near the Circus Maximus. Due to the wooden buildings and a strong wind, the fire spread rapidly, and continued for five days. At the end, 71% of the city of Rome was destroyed or heavily damaged.
Emperor Nero, suspected by some to have ordered the fire, so he could execute his ambitious urban plans, then blamed the Christian community, and started a persecution. Christians were publically executed by means of thrown for the lions, burned alive, or crucified. Spectacles that, anyway are an inspiration for the fantasies on this Forum.
Emperor Nero, suspected by some to have ordered the fire, so he could execute his ambitious urban plans, then blamed the Christian community, and started a persecution. Christians were publically executed by means of thrown for the lions, burned alive, or crucified. Spectacles that, anyway are an inspiration for the fantasies on this Forum.
I don’t believe any of my ancestors were responsible for the conflagration, but were probably the first to be accused and crucified anyway. Things never change. From Nero to CruxForums, fire to red buttons. we Moores always get blamed.
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Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
According to the official report, the fire actually started in a Riesling vendor's shop close to Circus Maximus! Immediately before the fire broke out, a woman was seen coming out, saying "Oh, shit!" (in Latin). According to witnesses, after a Riesling degustation ("no Moore than two amphorae!"), she had problems finding the exit and she was holding up a torch under the flammable roof..I don’t believe any of my ancestors were responsible for the conflagration, but were probably the first to be accused and crucified anyway. Things never change. From Nero to CruxForums, fire to red buttons. we Moores always get blamed.
! )
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Frank Petrexa
Tribune
Paul was apparently executed by Nero in or before 62, before the fire. He had "appealed to Caesar" after a hearing before the Judean governor concerning an incident in the temple (Paul had a way of ticking people off). He probably would have been released had he not done that. It is not clear where and when Peter was executed--all the sources are fairly late and repeat various legends (like the Quo Vadis story). As early as Claudius the Jewish Christian vs. Jewish Jews controversy was causing trouble, and Claudius kicked some Jews out of Rome because of it (this is in Tacitus, if I recall, so is fairly reliable--I doubt Tacitus had even heard of Peter or Paul). By 69, people were fed up with Nero and he was deposed and killed, ushering in the year of the four emperors which Vespasian finally won. "History" is always in dispute, but for this stuff there is very little to go on and you have to hope the scribes didn't change things when they were copying (of course I have read that the official German "war diary" pages about World War I were "removed" before the Allies could get hold of them). Maybe all the speculation about cosmology and dark matter and dark energy and string theory and what not isn't much less reliable than some of this stuff.
I don't know if Reisling was around then, although there was probably a robust wine industry.
O faex, or (more likely) O faeces!
wulf
God-Emperor
You know what they say..... "Where there's smoke, there's fire".I don’t believe any of my ancestors were responsible for the conflagration, but were probably the first to be accused and crucified anyway. Things never change. From Nero to CruxForums, fire to red buttons. we Moores always get blamed.
And the authorities always "Round up the usual suspects" when investigating criminal behavior.
Told you...O faex, or (more likely) O faeces!
I don't think I've ever posted any Latin on these pages without getting a red 'see me' at the bottom.
Riesling is a relatively modern grape cultivar, but the Romans certainly encouraged grape-growing along the Mosel, home of the finest white wine, especially during the time in the 4th century when Treveronum, Trier, was the imperial capital. At that time, Ausonius wrote a rather lovely, though difficult, poem about the Mosel, with lots of mention of vines flourishing on the hillsides above the water. But in Rome they'd have been drinking Falernian wine.
Told you...
I don't think I've ever posted any Latin on these pages without getting a red 'see me' at the bottom.
for an excellent try! 
The assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 was the most significant coup attempt by the military resistance during the Nazi era.[1] The conspirators considered the killing of Adolf Hitler to be a prerequisite for a change of power, also from the point of view of the "oath to the Führer". However, Hitler survived the explosion of the explosive charge placed by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg in the Führer's headquarters Wolfsschanze on July 20, 1944, with minor injuries.
This failure, as well as gaps in the preparation and hesitation in triggering Operation Valkyrie, the plan for the coup, caused the coup attempt to fail. The participants in the conspiracy, the people of July 20, 1944, came primarily from the former nobility, the Wehrmacht and the administration. They often had contacts with the Kreisau Circle around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. Among the more than 200 people later executed for the uprising were Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, 19 generals, 26 colonels, two ambassadors, seven diplomats, a minister, three state secretaries and the head of the Reich Criminal Police Office; as well as several senior presidents, police presidents and government presidents.
This failure, as well as gaps in the preparation and hesitation in triggering Operation Valkyrie, the plan for the coup, caused the coup attempt to fail. The participants in the conspiracy, the people of July 20, 1944, came primarily from the former nobility, the Wehrmacht and the administration. They often had contacts with the Kreisau Circle around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. Among the more than 200 people later executed for the uprising were Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, 19 generals, 26 colonels, two ambassadors, seven diplomats, a minister, three state secretaries and the head of the Reich Criminal Police Office; as well as several senior presidents, police presidents and government presidents.
Frank Petrexa
Tribune
One can contrast this with Stalin, who had a superbly effective secret police apparatus and "bureaucracy" for spreading terror and stifling opposition (often by removing people who could even POTENTIALLY be a problem). The physicist Viktor Weisskopf visited Moscow before the war, and told his friends that "everyone is scared to death". Of course this resulted in the Red Army being overwhelmed on June 22, 1941. After that, Stalin had to tolerate people like Zhukov and Rokossovsky, but they also knew he was watching. Zhukov was pensioned off after the war, and he had to ride a white horse in the victory parade that had thrown Stalin and almost threw him. To Stalin's disappointment, he stayed in the saddle.
Churchill certainly had opposition, from people behind Lord Halifax. He was turned out in the election when the war ended, before the Potsdam Conference. Roosevelt told MacArthur in the Hawaii conference of 1944 that if the war were over, he would not be reelected. The Roosevelt administration did everything it could to keep MacArthur busy and out of politics, despite his vainglorious military blunders. Before the war, Roosevelt took a call from Governor Huey Long, the populist from Louisiana. His staff could hear the governor's voice rise as he ranted, and the snickering escalated. After the call, this was the conversation. "We may laugh at old Huey, but he's one of the two most dangerous men in America. Who's the other, Father Coughlin (an antisemitic radio preacher)? Oh, no, the other is Douglas MacArthur."
Churchill certainly had opposition, from people behind Lord Halifax. He was turned out in the election when the war ended, before the Potsdam Conference. Roosevelt told MacArthur in the Hawaii conference of 1944 that if the war were over, he would not be reelected. The Roosevelt administration did everything it could to keep MacArthur busy and out of politics, despite his vainglorious military blunders. Before the war, Roosevelt took a call from Governor Huey Long, the populist from Louisiana. His staff could hear the governor's voice rise as he ranted, and the snickering escalated. After the call, this was the conversation. "We may laugh at old Huey, but he's one of the two most dangerous men in America. Who's the other, Father Coughlin (an antisemitic radio preacher)? Oh, no, the other is Douglas MacArthur."
PeterVl
Magistrate
Some excerpts from the infamous "Order no. 227" (issued on July 28 1942, the same day that German forces invaded the Caucasus as a part of the "Fall Blau" plan).
"Some stupid people at the front calm themselves with talk that we can retreat further to the east, as we have a lot of territory, a lot of ground, a lot of population and that there will always be much bread for us."
"The Germans are not so strong, as it seems to the panic-mongers. They strain their last forces. To withstand their impact now, means to ensure our victory in some months."
"Is it necessary for us to learn from our enemies, as our grandparents studied their enemies in the past and achieved victory? I think it is necessary."
"J. Stalin."
"Some stupid people at the front calm themselves with talk that we can retreat further to the east, as we have a lot of territory, a lot of ground, a lot of population and that there will always be much bread for us."
"The Germans are not so strong, as it seems to the panic-mongers. They strain their last forces. To withstand their impact now, means to ensure our victory in some months."
"Is it necessary for us to learn from our enemies, as our grandparents studied their enemies in the past and achieved victory? I think it is necessary."
"J. Stalin."
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August 6, 1945, atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
The city of Hiroshima was the first target of the US armed forces. Due to its industrial and military facilities, the city was also of strategic importance. The bomb, codenamed "Little Boy," was dropped on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. local time. According to various sources, between 90,000 and 120,000 people were killed immediately or succumbed to their injuries in the following months in the city, which at the time had an estimated population of 300,000. Around 90 percent of the houses were destroyed or severely damaged.
Since 1947, the "peace bell" has been rung in Hiroshima on August 6 at 8:15 a.m. A ceremony is held to commemorate those who died at that time. The mayor in office calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons and appeals for peace in the world.
A total of 250,000 people are said to have died as a result of the attack.
The city of Hiroshima was the first target of the US armed forces. Due to its industrial and military facilities, the city was also of strategic importance. The bomb, codenamed "Little Boy," was dropped on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. local time. According to various sources, between 90,000 and 120,000 people were killed immediately or succumbed to their injuries in the following months in the city, which at the time had an estimated population of 300,000. Around 90 percent of the houses were destroyed or severely damaged.
Since 1947, the "peace bell" has been rung in Hiroshima on August 6 at 8:15 a.m. A ceremony is held to commemorate those who died at that time. The mayor in office calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons and appeals for peace in the world.
A total of 250,000 people are said to have died as a result of the attack.
Frank Petrexa
Tribune
There are lots of things to say about this.August 6, 1945, atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
The city of Hiroshima was the first target of the US armed forces. Due to its industrial and military facilities, the city was also of strategic importance. The bomb, codenamed "Little Boy," was dropped on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. local time. According to various sources, between 90,000 and 120,000 people were killed immediately or succumbed to their injuries in the following months in the city, which at the time had an estimated population of 300,000. Around 90 percent of the houses were destroyed or severely damaged.
Since 1947, the "peace bell" has been rung in Hiroshima on August 6 at 8:15 a.m. A ceremony is held to commemorate those who died at that time. The mayor in office calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons and appeals for peace in the world.
A total of 250,000 people are said to have died as a result of the attack.
View attachment 1509049 View attachment 1509048
The Hiroshima bomb was untested--it was an enriched Uranium bomb with a design mimicking stuffing fuel rods into a reactor. They had known about that since Fermi had done it in 1942 under a football stadium in Chicago (risking his own family and the city), so I guess they had confidence it would work. They had to separate U235 from U238, and they didn't use centrifuges--they passed UF6 gas (yep, fluorine isn't just good for toothpaste) through porous barriers repeatedly and exploited the fact that the lighter U235 compound would tend to come out early from a series of passages. But, if it got too concentrated it would "go critical". In "Los Alamos from Below", Feynman says that as a 20-something Oppenheimer sent him to Oak Ridge to tell them to use some care. "Wow, little Richard is going to tell them that!" "Yes, little Richard is going to tell them that."
So all subsequent bombs, like the one dropped on Nagasaki, were Plutonium, which as separate element could be chemically separated. (And the dregs are there to this day in the rusting tanks at the Hanford, Washington, superfund site, where the priority is to keep them out of the river.) But triggering a Pu bomb was trickier--they decided to use a symmetrical explosion to compress the Pu into a "critical mass" where the neutrons would hit enough other nuclei to trigger a chain reaction explosion, and that was what was tested at "Trinity" (where the redoubtable Fermi and others questioned whether the N2 in the atmosphere would ignite from the heat). The mechanism was passed to Stalin by his spies at Los Alamos, but it is an indicator of the technical complexity of this "achievement" that the Soviets didn't get a bomb until 1947.
They knew radiation was dangerous but were fairly clueless about dosages and length of exposure. Some fairly senior people were went from Los Alamos to Hiroshima after the surrender to poke around. It took a while (and the deaths of a lot of "survivors") before the full risk was appreciated.
Some say the tragedy wasn't necessary (I do not agree). They argue with some merit that a blockade could have starved Japan out (which was in progress) and conventional firebombing could have done the job (I never understand how this was more humane). So why did they do it? I think the "animosity" argument is fairly insulting to people like Truman. One book by a Japanese historian argues that the Soviet Union (one of the few Yalta promises Stalin kept) declared war on Japan on August 8, and the United States didn't want a shared occupation of Japan. There is certainly truth to this. Numerous books point out that after VE day, people wanted the "boys" to come home. There was urgency to end the war. The Japanese war cabinet strategy (the United States could read the Japanese codes) was to use suicidal attacks (including by civilians) to cause so many casualties that the United States would accept a compromise peace with an obviously completely defeated Japan (I.e., they had no way to win or resist for very much longer). Iwo Jima and Okinawa certainly implemented this strategy. But casualty estimates varied widely, from MacArthur's (he was going to command the invasion so of course it would be a cake walk) low ball to others' estimates of a quarter of a million to a million. I think Truman believed the latter. There were at least two bombs to start. The "animosity" argument would use both at once and possibly against more populous cities (Yokohama?). The United States spared the culturally significant Kyoto. There was a lag between the two bombs, as if the United States gave Japan some time to respond and end the war.
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Frank Petrexa
Tribune
Another thing to say was that the B-29 (used to drop the bombs) was a cantankerous aircraft, chock full of parts and very heavy. They needed very long runways (which the albatrosses--also very heavy "aircraft"--appropriated to get airborne: the fabled "gooney birds"). Pilots would pray that they could get enough airspeed before they ran out of runway. For this reason, the bombs were disarmed and assembled in the air. If a mission had to abort after the bomb was armed, the bomb would be dropped in the ocean.
The Nagasaki mission was almost a disaster. Colonel Bock, the commander, missed connection with the "chase plane" to record data (it was circling above him at the rendezvous point--there were only two planes and no fighter escort) and he ran low on fuel. The original target was Kokura, but it was clouded over so they proceeded (more fuel used) to the secondary target of Nagasaki. It was only "partly cloudy", and his plane ("Bock's Car") successfully dropped the bomb. He was pretty severely chewed out when he returned.
The combination of cocksure bravado and enormous risk involved in wartime operations is always fascinating.
The cruiser USS Indianapolis, which had delivered the bomb to Tinian, was torpedoed and sunk returning to Luzon by one of the superbly effective Japanese submarines, and the crew was not found and rescued for days resulting in massive casualties due to shark attacks. The captain committed suicide--it was a record disaster for the US Navy.
In a response to the firebombing of their cities, the Japanese floated high-altitude balloons toward the US west coast, and some started forest fires. Black paratroopers, who back then could not be integrated into combat units, were used as "smoke jumpers" to get into rugged terrain and extinguish the fires.
There certainly was "animosity" on both sides in the Pacific War, probably surpassing that on the Eastern Front.
The Nagasaki mission was almost a disaster. Colonel Bock, the commander, missed connection with the "chase plane" to record data (it was circling above him at the rendezvous point--there were only two planes and no fighter escort) and he ran low on fuel. The original target was Kokura, but it was clouded over so they proceeded (more fuel used) to the secondary target of Nagasaki. It was only "partly cloudy", and his plane ("Bock's Car") successfully dropped the bomb. He was pretty severely chewed out when he returned.
The combination of cocksure bravado and enormous risk involved in wartime operations is always fascinating.
The cruiser USS Indianapolis, which had delivered the bomb to Tinian, was torpedoed and sunk returning to Luzon by one of the superbly effective Japanese submarines, and the crew was not found and rescued for days resulting in massive casualties due to shark attacks. The captain committed suicide--it was a record disaster for the US Navy.
In a response to the firebombing of their cities, the Japanese floated high-altitude balloons toward the US west coast, and some started forest fires. Black paratroopers, who back then could not be integrated into combat units, were used as "smoke jumpers" to get into rugged terrain and extinguish the fires.
There certainly was "animosity" on both sides in the Pacific War, probably surpassing that on the Eastern Front.
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vadim69
Magistrate
50 years ago
Nixon decided to resign. [88] In a nationally broadcast address from the Oval Office on the evening of August 8, 1974, the President said, in part:
"In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. However, in the last few days it has become apparent to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing this effort. While I had such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be disloyal to the spirit of this deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.
Nixon decided to resign. [88] In a nationally broadcast address from the Oval Office on the evening of August 8, 1974, the President said, in part:
"In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. However, in the last few days it has become apparent to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing this effort. While I had such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be disloyal to the spirit of this deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.