Today I Learned #3: There's a wiki for everything!

[EgonSpengler]

I'm not saying that it's not racist, but on this scale it involves an awful lot of humans to have them all being racist.

And indeed, if you raise the issue, they tend to get defensive. They can't be racist, they're good people.

One of the reasons I'm a little surprised by the resistance to the very idea of systemic racism is that it would seem to take a little of the weight off the shoulders of people who don't want to examine their own baggage too closely.

TIL the Men in Black theme is a derivative of Forget Me Nots, a 1982 song co-written and performed by American R&B musician Patrice Rushen. Good tune.

Yeah, there's a whole [bucket]load of classic blues, soul, R&B, funk and disco sprinkled liberally throughout subsequent music (rock & roll, hip-hop, and 77 different flavors of pop). Most of the time it's fun, but sometimes it gets downright contentious (e.g. Led Zeppelin) and even litigious (e.g. C+C Music Factory; Robin Thicke/Pharrel Williams).

There are millions, I'm sure, but here're a couple of my favorites:

Spoiler :

Isaac Hayes put a piano riff waaaaay in the back of "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" (1969), I think around the 6 or 7-minute mark...

...and then Public Enemy took a piece of that and made it the spine of "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" (1988)

And Hayes' "Walk on By" was used by Hooverphonic in "2Wicky" (1996) to good effect.

I guess I'm trusting the man got paid in both of these instances. I haven't looked into it. I know that with Martha Wash in "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)", not only did they decide she didn't fit the image they wanted to project, they also didn't want to pay her or give her credit for singing the song. I mean, it's one thing to get some models to dance in your video, that's fine, but f'ing pay the woman, you [tools]. I guess the issue with "Blurred Lines" was more complicated, as it wasn't a sample, per se. I don't remember know how that lawsuit resolved. There was a Led Zeppelin song that, similar to "Blurred Lines", was just too much of a rip of an older song to be a coincidence. I forget which songs it was, now.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I believe the Led Zeppelin song you are thinking of is Stairway to Heaven. I don't know how that ever got resolved though. There was a lot of fuss about the intro and part of the melody being ripped off. I know that Jimmy Page ripped off a lot of old blues artists on the first couple of albums they did. They were forced to make reparations as I understand it, and at least give the original songwriters credit.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

There was a joke in Wayne's World about Stairway to Heaven that was made because Led Zeppelin never licensed their songs. After Wayne plays three notes, the store manager points to a sign saying "No Stairway." Led Zeppelin sued the producers of the movie for copyright infringement so those three notes had to be changed.

 

[r16]

... in April 1945, Heinrich Himmler ordered that all males aged 14+ residing in a home displaying a white flag should be summarily executed. Civilians were trying to announce themselves to the advancing Allied armies... didn't realize it was a broad order from Himmler and not just a few "last stand" nutjobs going fully 'round the bend. So I'm wondering now whether this sort of thing happened in other places across Germany.

on the strength of one single book once read . Son-in-law of Patton becomes a POW in the Kasserine Pass . His prison camp is known so , when within range , Patton launches a rescue , ı think into present day Czech Republic . Misgivings are raised by other commanders , because it is not exact direction of advance and the rescue party might be cut off . They make a great start , though it will be marred by the execution of a truckload of German Army nurses . There is this old guy , like a relic of WW l , who would identify the son-in-law Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel , 1970s books question the Old Guard of America and its values but it is still kinda Commie propaganda to suggest it was anything but accident . And the book weirdly falls into this odd Russian tradition of calling every casemate German anti tank vehicle a Ferdinand , you know this Elephant thing of like 70 tons with 200 mm frontal armour , which can do things within the impressive exception of speeding to any location . Anyhow , the penetration also brings an SS cadet battalion , who shoot at every window at towns and villages as they chase the Americans on foot . lf they see anything white ... Rescuers arrive at the prison camp , start shooting at all the structures flying the Serbian / Yugoslav flag because nobody expects Americans to know there are other nationalities in the world and whatever ... Patton's son-in-law is permitted by the camp commander , a Wehrmacht general (winner of medals in the Great War) to stop the American rescue party . Which he hastes greatly to do and succeeds . Only to be shot in the belly by some infantryman in an unknown uniform , so many weird stuff in German hands in those days . He is left in the camp , Serbian doctors saving his life while there are some volunteers who jump into halftracks to freedom . Of course only to run into the Ferdinands with non-Elephant speed . A few makes back , some captured and put right into the prison camp they raided . Event supprassed , Patton enraged because the Captain of the raiding party will give a rousing account of the engagement , the only one he ever saw Germans conducting a combined-arms battle , though there is no account of aircover . Meaning Patton will always press for a war with the Soviets , leading to his suppression .

 

[Takhisis]

TIL that in April 1945, Heinrich Himmler ordered that all males aged 14+ residing in a home displaying a white flag should be summarily executed. Civilians were trying to announce themselves to the advancing Allied armies. In some cases, such as in Austria, civilians would show a non-[National Socialist] flag, such as the pre-1938 Austrian flag. Of course many soldiers and police were ignoring the order, but some diehards - SS and Gestapo, for some - were actually carrying it out, enough that some Wehrmacht looking forward to the end of the war had to worry about the civilians around them, and not (just) because of the advancing Allied armies. In the book I'm reading, a Wehrmacht Major - German, not even Austrian - was so worried that the SS he was embedded with would start executing civilians that he became the military commander of the local resistance cell and helped them stockpile weapons and ammunition to defend themselves against the crazies, German-on-German, until the Americans could arrive. I knew a little bit about this particular battle at Schloss Itter before I started reading the book, and I knew that part of the story was that the risk to civilians from the SS prompted a Wehrmacht unit to side with the Americans, but I didn't realize it was a broad order from Himmler and not just a few "last stand" nutjobs going fully 'round the bend. So I'm wondering now whether this sort of thing happened in other places across Germany.

There was a lot of resistance against the Nazis and Fascists within Germany and Italy themselves.

A river named 'water' seems a little on-the-nose, if you ask me, but alright.

Almost as on-the-nose as a river named "Avon". There are quite a few of those in the UK, and former British colonies...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Avon

(because the word is derived from a proto-Celtic root, reflected in modern Welsh as "Afon", i.e. 'river'!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_of_Wales

Or the Elbe, which is just the river River.

People can be surprisingly unoriginal.

 

[Takhisis]

There was a joke in Wayne's World about Stairway to Heaven that was made because Led Zeppelin never licensed their songs. After Wayne plays three notes, the store manager points to a sign saying "No Stairway." Led Zeppelin sued the producers of the movie for copyright infringement so those three notes had to be changed.

TVTropes says that the ‘No Stairway’ signs were actually a thing once upon a time because people would insist on trying out guitars by playing the song which I cannot mention in order to avoid copyright issues.

 

[Samson]

Or the Elbe, which is just the river River.

People can be surprisingly unoriginal.

There are quite a few.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Cambridge England comes to mind. It is where a bridge crosses the river Cam.

 

[Samson]

TIL how clinical trials started:

It was 1524. The Italian surgeon Gregorio Caravita offered Pope Clement VII a medicinal oil he had prepared as an antidote to poison. There were good reasons for the pope to fear poisoning. So, instead of dismissing Caravita’s unlikely claim, he decided to have the concoction tested — on condemned prisoners.
Two Corsicans — convicted of theft and murder — were chosen. Doctors fed them marzipan cakes laced with deadly aconite. When they started to writhe and scream in agony, Caravita anointed one of them with his oil. The treated prisoner survived. As a reward for his services, the prisoner had his death sentence commuted to life as a galley slave. The untreated prisoner? It took four hours of torment for him to die.
The next trial of Caravita’s oil was carried out by the papal physician, the papal pharmacist and a Roman senator. The officials wanted to check that they had not been tricked, and to see whether the antidote worked against other poisons. They administered a mixture of raw eggs, sugar and arsenic to a man from Mantua who had been condemned for murder. He, too, survived to live out his days as a galley slave.
Two weeks later, the experimenters published a four-page report of the trials, describing effects of the poisons and emphasizing the presence of “pious men” who prayed on the convicts’ behalf. (Without knowing the exact content of the oil, and the exact doses of the poisons, it is impossible today to speculate on whether the antidote could really have worked.)​

 

[Lemon Merchant]

TVTropes says that the ‘No Stairway’ signs were actually a thing once upon a time because people would insist on trying out guitars by playing the song which I cannot mention in order to avoid copyright issues.

My local musical instrument store has them in the guitar section.

 

[Cutlass]

TVTropes says that the ‘No Stairway’ signs were actually a thing once upon a time because people would insist on trying out guitars by playing the song which I cannot mention in order to avoid copyright issues.

It was actually because at the time literally everyone who thought they could play guitar was trying to play Stairway. It was on the radio constantly. It was on every playlist at every party, prom, wedding reception. It was inescapable. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant would tour without John Paul Jones (John Bohnam was dead by then) so they could call themselves Page & Plant and play Zepplin songs, but not Stairway.

Eventually people just got tired of it. Wayne's World was making fun of the decade or so long period in which Stairway was consigned to silence.

 

[GenMarshall]

I discovered the term and meaning of thought-terminating cliché watching a YouTuber who's a former anti-sjw.

 

[Samson]

Trench warfare is alive and well in Libya:

Construction on an enormous trench across Libya, dug by Russian-backed mercenaries Wagner, is raising fears that foreign fighters will not withdraw from the country by Saturday, as a UN-brokered peace deal insists.
US officials are also concerned over the long-term goals of the Kremlin ally in the war-torn state. One intelligence official notes that the trench is a sign that Wagner, which, the official said, has its largest global presence in Libya, is "settling in for the long haul."
The trench, which extends dozens of kilometers south from the populated coastal areas around Sirte towards the Wagner-controlled stronghold of al-Jufra, can be seen on satellite imagery and is bolstered by a series of elaborate fortifications.
The trench and fortifications appear designed to impede or stop a land attack on LNA controlled areas in the east, running through the populated coastal areas of Libya that have seen the most clashes since the 2011 fall of the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.
The GNA have posted images of excavators and trucks creating the ditch and berm that runs alongside it and said that work appeared ongoing as recently as this month.
The trench, the US intelligence official said, is another reason "we see no intent or movement by either Turkish or Russian forces to abide by the UN-brokered agreement. This has the potential to derail an already fragile peace process and ceasefire. It will be a really difficult year ahead."
Open-source monitoring says it has mapped a series of more than 30 defensive positions dug into the desert and hillsides that stretch for about 70 kilometres.
Satellite imagery from Maxar, seems to show both the trench stretching along a main road, and the fortifications dug, also by Wagner mercenaries and their contractors.
​

 

[GenMarshall]

Trench warfare is alive and well in Libya

I for see that Trench Warfare will still be in our toolkit in warfare in the future.

 

[r16]

which is more likely to be an "anti-tank" ditch to stop raiding Toyotas or more with their more correct appellation , technicals to cross . lt's a straight line , you would be all dead when shells start dropping inside and with today's tech they would . There should have been a million zig and zags , 3 or 4 lines , covered and well reinforced locations to keep infantry safe from artillery and air attacks .

edit: WW l stuff , Loos something in France

 

[Berzerker]

another baseball great has ventured into the corn stalks on the field of dreams, Hank Aaron passed at the age of 86

still the king in my book with 755 HR. Sorry Barry, steroids taint your achievements. And Henry did it while being hounded by death threats.

 

[GenMarshall]

Being free to pursue knowledge without guilt. I’ve started to look into climate change and (this may seem a bit ranty) realized that the climate change deniers have lied to me and kept me away from it.

 

[Zkribbler]

another baseball great has ventured into the corn stalks on the field of dreams, Hank Aaron passed at the age of 86

still the king in my book with 755 HR. Sorry Barry, steroids taint your achievements. And Henry did it while being hounded by death threats.

I remember reading his autobiography. He was most proud of his home run + batting average stat. MC Hammer named himself after Aaron's nickname.

 

[Berzerker]

Being free to pursue knowledge without guilt. I’ve started to look into climate change and (this may seem a bit ranty) realized that the climate change deniers have lied to me and kept me away from it.

Its unavoidable, dumping carbon into the atmosphere can only cool the planet when its accompanied by volcanic dust. We made it cleaner so we get warmer even faster. Just wait until the methane trapped in tundra and permafrost escapes.

I saw a study about sea rise, researchers looked at the last interglacial period 127-116kya. They think sea levels were about 8m higher and temperatures were 1-2c higher. One major difference with that comparison is that interglacial lasted over 10ky so ice had plenty of time to melt, our current warming of ~150 years followed the mini ice age. We do not want that to happen again, so we might actually be inoculating ourselves from another dip in temperatures.

I remember reading his autobiography. He was most proud of his home run + batting average stat. MC Hammer named himself after Aaron's nickname.

He was a gold glover too... The Babe was not a great fielder but I dont expect his other records to fall. Here's a comparison:

https://www.fueledbysports.com/babe-ruth-vs-hank-aaron-comparison/

I was surprised both men got just 1 MVP award

 

[Zkribbler]

I was surprised both men got just 1 MVP award

I am gob smacked!

ooh ooh, I almost forgot. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record. The next time he hit a home run, as he crossed the plate, the guy batting behind him said, "Congratulations, you just broke Hank Aaron's home run record.''