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

[Arakhor]

North europeans trying to have an epic, so cute

We have Beowulf, thanks. No doubt you didn't think much of it.

 

[Traitorfish]

Is "Northern Europe doesn't have epic poetry" even a stereotype? It's a very confusing comment.

 

[Kyriakos]

Is "Northern Europe doesn't have epic poetry" even a stereotype? It's a very confusing comment.

Northern european epics tend to have trolls. Maybe this makes things less confusing ^_^

 

[AmazonQueen]

Northern european epics tend to have trolls. Maybe this makes things less confusing ^_^

Beowulf has trolls. Other epics are available.

 

[Takhisis]

Beowulf has trolls.

So does this forum…

 

[Ajidica]

Northern european epics tend to have trolls. Maybe this makes things less confusing ^_^

Then one stood on the shore, sternly calling out,
a Viking herald, conversing in many words,
he delivered in a vaunt the message of the brim-sailors
to that nobleman where he stood on the riverbank: (25-8)

“They have sent me to you, the hardy sea-men—
they bid you be informed that you must quickly send
rings in exchange for protection, and it would be better
for you to buy off with tribute this storm of spears,
otherwise we should deal in such a hard battle.
We needn’t destroy ourselves if you are sufficiently rich—
we wish to establish a safeguard in exchange for gold.
If you decide this, you who are most powerful here,
and you wish to ransom your people
and give to the sea-men, according to their own discretion,
money in exchange for peace, and take a truce at our hands,
we will go back to our ships with our payment,
and sail away, holding the peace with you.” (29-41)

Byrhtnoth spoke back, raising up his shield,
waving his slender spear, speaking in words,
angry and resolute, giving them answer: (42-4)

“Have you heard, sailor, what these people say?
They wish to give you spears as tribute,
the poisonous points and ancient swords,
this tackle of war that will do you no good in battle.
Herald of the brim-men, deliver this again,
say unto your people a more unpleasant report:
here stands with his troops a renowned earl
who wishes to defend this homeland,
the country of Æthelred, my own lord,
and his citizens and territory. The heathens
shall perish in battle. It seems a humiliation
to let you go to your ships with our treasures
unfought—now you have come thus far
into our country. You must not get our gold
so softly. Points and edges must reconcile us first,
a grim war-playing, before we give you any tribute.” (45-61)

https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/battle-of-maldon/

Way better than Greek epics, which seem to consist either about a guy being sad his boy toy was killed, or a guy managing to find as many ways as possible to avoid having to see his wife and spend more time with his bros.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Put in a word here for my favourite retelling of the Arthurian legend the Down the Long Wind trilogy by Gillian Bradshaw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawk_of_May
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Summer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Winter's_Shadow

Gillian Bradshaw is a good historical fiction author. I haven't read these, though, only her Greek and Byzantine ones.

We have Beowulf, thanks. No doubt you didn't think much of it.

Hm. Both Beowulf and Greek myths have been featured in various Star Trek episodes.

The Original Series did Apollo, both in canon ("Who Mourns for Adonais?") and in the Star Trek Continues series of fan films ("Pilgrim of Eternity" - with the same guest actor as in the TOS episode!).

Voyager did a Beowulf-themed holodeck episode.

Heck, even Xena: Warrior Princess did a story arc involving the Beowulf story.

So does this forum…

Funny thing about the word "troll"... in the SCA, it means the person who minds the gate at events and takes the fees. At our local feasts, I was the one who sat at the troll table, taking in fees for the feast and drink tickets (for the times when we held the feast in venues that allowed alcohol sales).

 

[Kyriakos]

So does this forum…

Takes a southerner to appreciate self-deprecating double entendres.

 

[Samson]

Today I calculated that netflix users in the UK pay about £4 / hour (but I may have calculated wrong):

From here:

Netflix subscribers by country (estimates, Q2 2020): UK - 14.8 million
Netflix UK content hours viewed vs rivals, April 2020: Netflix - 36 million
​

From here:

How much does Netflix cost? - Plans range from £5.99 to £13.99 a month
​

Hours watched in April / subscriber = 2.43 hours
If mean subscription is:

£10 (middle of range) - Netflix costs £4.11 / hour
£6 (bottom of range) - Netflix costs £2.47 / hour​

 

[The_J]

2h per user seems to be really low. After all, that's basically 1 movie.
I wonder what could skew the distribution. They don't have the 1st month free anymore, right? Because that might account for some 0-hours users.

 

[W|M]

There's canon, fanon, and head canon. Or so I'm told at TrekBBS when we get arguing whether or not certain series, movies, episodes, or details are canon or not.

If anyone wants to tackle the very long story I referenced, here it is: LEGACY: Marauder's Era

The primary pairing in this story is Sirius Black and an original character, and the story starts when the Marauders are just starting at Hogwarts. It's 173 chapters long at the moment (I binge-read the first 158 chapters inside of a week, so that should be an indication that it's a good story) and is currently in the timeframe of Goblet of Fire. The original character is the one who discovers that the Giant Squid isn't really a squid at all...

I just read the entire thing and the Giant Squid is Merlin, not the Lady of the Lake, and has no allegiance to any House

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I just read the entire thing and the Giant Squid is Merlin, not the Lady of the Lake, and has no allegiance to any House

Okay, my mistake. It's often said that Merlin was in Slytherin House, though. And keep in mind that this thing is 175 chapters long so far and it was quite some time ago that I binged the first 150 chapters or so. I knew the Giant Squid was one of the Arthurian characters.

So far Raylynx's story is weaving in and out of the canon events of the novels, but I think the readers would revolt if the author allows Sirius to be killed off the way it happened in canon.

 

[Samson]

Today Al Jazeera said that the US spends more than half its military budget on mercenaries. Inside story, online now, but not on youtube yet.

 

[Hrothbern]

Today Al Jazeera said that the US spends more than half its military budget on mercenaries. Inside story, on now, but not on youtube yet.

A shady and big activity overlapping with security companies like G4S
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4S

 

[GinandTonic]

Dear boys, they are only mercenaries when they're fighting for the wrong side. For us they're contractors and consultants.

 

[Samson]

Dear boys, they are only mercenaries when they're fighting for the wrong side. For us they're contractors and consultants.

They were on about this difference between "security" contractors and "military" contractors, but no one defined the difference. I was surprised they did not bring up child soldiers, but they had enough to cover.

Spoiler Child Soldiers working for PMCs? :

Aegis employed many mercenaries from Sierra Leone and Uganda to work in Iraq because they were cheaper than other options.
“The Sierra Leonean war has been fought mainly by young combatants. If you’re looking for young men to perform military jobs, the chances are quite good that they have also been child soldiers,” says Maya Mynster Christensen, anthropologist, Royal Danish Defence College.

She explains that “from a Sierra Leone government perspective, the Iraq recruitment was considered a quite good deal, in the sense that they could actually take local troublemakers, sending them away to Iraq for a couple of years, and then returning them after two years with money earned from their overseas deployment. This could serve to stabilise security in Sierra Leone.”

The number of former child soldiers recruited by private companies to take part in active combat is unknown, as is the total number of employees from the developing world is also unknown.

“On the one hand, Western countries have pumped large sums of money into the reintegration of former child soldiers, but now we have governments like the US supporting these so-called security companies that recruit people and continue their exposure to violence and cement their identities as perpetrators of violence as soldiers, that make it impossible to ever reintegrate into civilian life,” says Michael Wessels, a psychologist and adviser to the UN and NGOs.

Two ex-child soldiers sued for psychological damage.

I have not yet watched this:

 

[EgonSpengler]

Another glimpse of an "alternate universe": TIL Patty Smyth (of Scandal) was offered "Love is a Battlefield" before Pat Benatar, but she turned it down because she was pregnant.

Spoiler :

 

[Samson]

Another glimpse of an "alternate universe": TIL Patty Smyth (of Scandal) was offered "Love is a Battlefield" before Pat Benatar, but she turned it down because she was pregnant.

Spoiler :

I have always liked Love is a Battlefield, but I had not seen the video until lockdown. Now I cannot hear it without thinking of the knights that say ni.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Another glimpse of an "alternate universe": TIL Patty Smyth (of Scandal) was offered "Love is a Battlefield" before Pat Benatar, but she turned it down because she was pregnant.

Spoiler :

They could have been singing the same song with a different video since the sound was essentially the same. The best part of the Pat B video was the letter she sent to her brother.

 

[Samson]

TIL what the centrifuges you use to make nuclear bombs look like: