Questions from an ignoramus

[Louis XXIV]

Random Roman, 100 AD: "Nobody works too hard in cold places, best I can tell. It's clearly regions that have a proper balanced temperature, like the Mediterreanean, where the most economic and technological development occurs."

Yeah, it does shift depending on the period and all that. Or maybe it is entirely BS. Certainly, I haven't done anything all day, so I can't exactly call myself part of the industrious crowd.

It's also possible that the theories of industriousness just had to do with places that were touched the most significantly by the industrial revolution. Places like England and Germany needed to have people work more like clockwork so the attitude of things getting done when they got done had no place. Of course, that brings us back to the original subject, just with me making the suggestion that the industrial revolution fueled a British work ethic, rather than the British work ethic fueling the Industrial Revolution.

Now to go study for my final exam tomorrow.

 

[Traitorfish]

Random Roman, 100 AD: "Nobody works too hard in cold places, best I can tell. It's clearly regions that have a proper balanced temperature, like the Mediterreanean, where the most economic and technological development occurs."

There was actually an Arab philosopher in 9th-ish century who claimed just that; he argued that the people South of the Mediterranean climate band had been baked into stupidity and sluggishness by their over-abundance of sunlight, while the sun-starved people of the North were airhead, witless and hysterical, hence substantial civilisation being a quality unique to those dwelling between the two. So, yeah, not without precedent.

 

[Dachs]

That's an old Greek trope, actually. Romans parroted it, too. Hence the comment.

 

[Traitorfish]

That's an old Greek trope, actually. Romans parroted it, too. Hence the comment.

Really? Oh, well, I still like the Arab chappy's version, if only because being described as a witless quasi-albino takes a certain responsibility off my back.

 

[ParkCungHee]

The French claimed the same thing about the Vietnamese.
Specifically they claimed they could never be assed to make a serious move towards independence, on account of it being so damn hot.

 

[Masada]

Dutch did the same.

 

[ParkCungHee]

It might have been the Dutch actually. It's been too long since I read In the Shadow of Empire.

 

[Masada]

Nah, it was the French. But the Dutch said much the same nonsense.

 

[Traitorfish]

I imagine that more or less everyone did, at some point.

 

[Bugfatty300]

in fact, it was the difficulty of loading a rifle using spherical bullets which spurred early developments in conical ammunition.

Indeed. A conical shaped bullet only makes sense in a true rifle. And those weren't developed until the 18th century.

Obviously muskets loaded from the muzzle could only be loaded with projectiles that were smaller than the bore. A conical bullet would bounce around and come out of the gun end over end, spinning around, etc where as a sphere would have a more consistent trajectory.

 

[Lord Baal]

I imagine that more or less everyone did, at some point.

I know I couldn't be arsed to fight for independence this last week for that reason.

 

[Karalysia]

I know I couldn't be arsed to fight for independence this last week for that reason.

Pfft...apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what has your country ever done for you?

 

[Traitorfish]

Link to video.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Pfft...apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what has your country ever done for you?

Crocodile Dundee.

 

[Masada]

They accused him of tax fraud.

 

[Lord Baal]

Pfft...apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what has your country ever done for you?

Dude, I live in Sydney. I have none of those things.

 

[Masada]

New South Wales: The trains never run on time.

 

[Lord Baal]

New South Wales: The trains never run on time.

That's really the only thing separating our current government from Fascism: at least Fascism is somewhat efficient.

 

[Traitorfish]

That's really the only thing separating our current government from Fascism: at least Fascism is somewhat efficient.

Actually, the trains in Fascist Italy and Francoist Spain were both notoriously unreliable. That sort of thing seems to have more to do with cultural anal-retentiveness than political systems.

 

[Lord Baal]

Actually, the trains in Fascist Italy and Francoist Spain were both notoriously unreliable. That sort of thing seems to have more to do with cultural anal-retentiveness than political systems.

Stop ruining my jokes, dammit!