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This is an old thread, but it seems clear that the greatest blunders of the war were 1) Operation Barbarosa (as has been discussed), 2) forcing the fight in Stalingrad when retreat/recovery should have been on the table, and 3) not entering the phase of “total war” until it was much too late (I believe by around 1944). Had Hitler planned properly and entered total war by around 1941, the German industrial might would could have generated more muscle in later years that would have helped them defeat the Soviets.
I saw 300 a couple of nights ago for the first time. I had always kind of wanted to see it just because people talk about it, so I bit the bullet and watched it. It’s a pure testosterone rush, and I guess it’s meant to be viewed for its symbolic value or its filmmaking style rather than anything historical.
Was able to bench a personal record of 330 lbs. a few weeks ago.
Anyway, here are some of my workout pet peeves:
- Grunting so everyone can hear how much you are lifting.
- Occupying a workout station by just sitting there, mesmerized by your phone while others may be waiting it.
- Horrible smells from patrons.
- Not re-racking your weights.
- Singing aloud with the music you’re listening to through your headphones.
- Bathrooms that wreak.
- Having strangers working out next to you and chatting it up so much that you feel like you know every detail of how they spent last weekend.
- Hogging multiple sets of dumbbells at the same time.
- Being in a gym almost all by yourself, only to have someone walk in and use the exact machine or weights you were about to use.
- Patrons who wear inappropriate workout clothing.
I think you’re right about Sumer being near the top of this list. Apart from the Hebrews, the Sumerians played a significant role in the development of Western Civilization. And yes, writing was developed in Sumer.
Update to this thread. I have continued to work out on a regular basis, but significant gains seem hard to come by. Overall I am still near my lifetime peak strength, but I can’t really go beyond it much. For bench press I have been able to hit the low 300s for the past few months (did 295 x 2 during my last chest workout two days ago), so there is possibly slow growth.
I will say that the lack of using a spotter to help has hindered my growth because I can’t push it to total failure. Benching 300 lbs. without a spotter is a bit scary, although I think this can also be a good thing since the adrenaline kicks in.
With that said, about a month or so ago I started putting on these guiderails to the bench press station which acts as a stopper to prevent the bar from crushing me if I couldn’t get the weight up. I hadn’t used them before because I felt like they got in the way of my bench when I got near the bottom, but I found a way to prevent this from happening. Anyway, I can now try to increase my bench press without fear of going over my limit. One of these days when I’m feeling particularly strong I will try for 310 or higher.
As for the rest of my muscle groups, there’s not much advancement to report. I max out around 210 on lat pull downs, but even that is hard to do. Legs are stronger. I hurt my left arm doing bicep curls about 2-3 months ago, and it still has not healed completely and gives me some pain whenever I tense my bicep for an extended period of time.
Trump is going to let the release of the files proceed. We’ll be hearing some interesting stuff in the weeks ahead.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jfk-assassination-trump-to-allow-release-of-classified-documents/
The mystery has been solved.
The cause of death of the crew of the Hunley has been revealed
Mystery deaths of HL Hunley submarine crew solved – they accidentally killed themselves
Apparently the blast that sank the Housatonic was so great that a shockwave ripped through the soft tissue of the crew of the Hunley and they immediately died. The fact that the crew were still in position and did not make efforts to escape furthers this idea.
I’m going to respond to my original post by saying that it’s really not all that surprising that the aristocracy would be commenting on aesthetics in the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries because they could comment on aesthetics. The poor and the laboring masses would have either had less education and been unable to do so, or been unable to devote time enough to philosophize on such issues. In addition, the rich of the time would have had more artistic context because of the popularity of the Grand Tour during this period of history.
The ramifications are also interesting. If the idle rich are able to comment on aesthetics, and have the resources to commission new works, it means that select members of the aristocracy drive the appearance of the created world for blocks of history. When we look back on history and the leftover artifacts and buildings of yesteryear, we are not necessarily seeing an accurate picture of how people lived or what they thought, but instead how certain members lived or thought.
There’s also a lesson for us today in all of this. Some social or political issues become the pet causes of wealthy celebrities. While it’s admirable that they feel moved to engage in social action, it can be very dangerous when the social action is actually counter-productive to the common good.
There’s also the danger of elitism. A wealthy celebrity may be able to influence the creation of policy and the creation of new laws, but will not necessarily have to suffer the consequences of those laws. Adding a tax on travel to protect the environment might be the pet cause of the wealthy elite, but it’s pretty certain that those same elites will not feel the pain of higher travel costs. The pain will be most absorbed by the masses.
Truth be told, though, Donnie, the Byzantines weren’t successful in defending those vast boundaries. When push came to shove, they were only able to defend a fraction of that, and likely because the prize jewel of Constantinople was such a defensively-minded city. Yes, it was more than the western Romans could defend, but the Byzantines weren’t unstoppable during the early Middle Ages, either.
Even in the years after the Great Depression, it must have taken people a bit of time to recover. There was a recent article with photographs and stories about how bustling Coney Island was during the 1940s, and one story stuck out to me from a guy whose parents migrated from Italy to New York:
‘Whenever we passed Nathan’s there was a tug at my father’s coat – and I’d say ‘Papa, fracoforte!’ – I spoke Italian, my first language, and he’d give me a slap on the back of the head and say ‘walk and be quiet.’ I didn’t know why he refused me a hot dog, it was only a nickel! But later on he said to me ‘my dear son, in my old leather purse, I had just enough in there to get us there and get us home.’ We had no extra money for coffee or soda or Nathan’s hot dog.
It amazes me that poor people today have it so much better than poor people of the past. That family had to enjoy the free sights and sounds of Coney Island but couldn’t do much else. I’m sure there are people like that today, but I imagine that even poor people in our time would have money to buy some food here and there when on an outing.
Funny as I look back at this thread. Within about a year or two of writing this, I was using Endnote all the time for papers. I would say it’s an essential piece of software. Not only does it make formatting footnotes and bibliographies easier, but it makes organizing and keeping track of sources used so much easier. No professional scholar should be without it.
The oldest work of “art” with which I am familiar are the rock designs in the Blombos Cave in South Africa (c. 75,000 B.C.). The designs looks like a series of criss-crossed parallel lines. But hey – it’s art.
