Alatriste

Alatriste

  • Commented on The Nakamoto Variations
    Too late, there was already one at 'The Independent' yesterday (including a wonderful 'I started a trade war and all I got were these lousy tariffs' t-shirt)...
  • Commented on The Nakamoto Variations
    I like it! "They are all former lovers of the protagonist..." Do you know Dantés was known as prisoner no. 34? It's too good to be a mere coincidence :) And Abbé Faria was prisoner no. 27 (Rule 27: Always...
  • Commented on The Nakamoto Variations
    Actually I mostly agree. Schacht was never a Nazi (probably detested them from the start) but an old style reactionary/monarchist - which in German terms could mean elitist and militaristic, but no totalitarian and madly genocidal. I'm however not sure...
  • Commented on The Nakamoto Variations
    Agreed. Hjalmar Schacht was one of those German reactionaries that above all wanted to erase Versailles from existence and probably would have loved to welcome the Kaiser on his triumphant return to Berlin. Oh, and also believed they could use...
  • Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
    In Spanish we have a saying 'Sólo el necio confunde valor y precio' (Only the fool mixes value and price); air can be literally priceless while diamonds are quite pricey, but it takes air to live which makes it far...
  • Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
    'First Contact' by Murray Leinster. I did read it many years ago, liked it a lot, but have always thought there was a far more complex, amusing and interesting novel awaiting for someone to write it developing that idea... if...
  • Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
    Regarding Athenian police, it's important that pretty much our only contemporary sources are some remarks in Aristophanes comedies... but according to them they were indeed public slaves, called or perhaps nicknamed "Scythian archers" and obviously many if not all were...
  • Commented on Radio silence
    @361 [Regarding the societies that Asimov depicts] It has been too many years since the last time I read the Robot series but if memory serves me well the Spacer society - at least the Aurora one - wasn't so...
  • Commented on Radio silence
    While I broadly agree with you, political dynasties are far from unknown in Europe. Winston Churchill himself was son of Randolph Churchill, MP, father of Randolph Churchill, MP, and grandfather of Winston Churchill, MP; De Gaulle's son Philippe was a...
  • Commented on Radio silence
    "Catalonia’s flag is based on a story from the failed 17th century rebellion..." Not really, the story is far, far older than that. It would have have some Carolingian king, Charles the Bald or Louis the Pious most probably, awarding...
  • Commented on Paging Agent 007
    I'm quite sceptic myself, but please notice the book I read meant quality, not total numbers. Still, how did measure the average quality of horses before and after the wars is a thorny problem in itself; I don't think there...
  • Commented on Paging Agent 007
    Regarding Napoleon, what I had read didn't regard men but horses. It seems the almost permanent state of war between 1790 and 1815 caused the death of so many horses that actually the quality of European stocks never recovered -...
  • Commented on Crying fire in a crowded theatre for pleasure and profit
    Well, my experience dates literally from the ZX Spectrum Year, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, men used leather loincloths and 3270 terminals, and making a reserve implied using a phone tied to a wall :) But I think I can...
  • Commented on Crying fire in a crowded theatre for pleasure and profit
    One of my duties in my first job, more than 30 years ago, was assigning seats to passengers before they boarded their planes. It was expressly forbidden to place persons that could delay evacuation near emergency exits, and the prohibition...
  • Commented on Catching Up
    "Romanticized wiev of the capital -R revolution, little skills in real world management and a nasty attitude about "The true enemy is the moderate left, not the loony right". Now, where did I see that attitude lately? Oh, yes, in...
  • Commented on 2117 revisited
    Actually I mostly agree (for example the 30 Years Wars 1618-1648 doesn't fit, and neither does the Taiping Rebellion, by many estimates the most bloody war ever fought on this planet and probably the reason China is so decided to...
  • Commented on 2117 revisited
    1415 saw two quite important events in Europe, the battle of Agincourt, that caused the Kingdom of France to collapse, and the execution of Jan Hus, that caused the Hussite Wars. Out of Europe, the first years of the XV...
  • Commented on The sudden eruption of news
    Seriously, it stands to reason that not being a member can never be as good as being a member. In consequence Britain's status in relation to the Union will necessarily be worse than now. Calling this downgrade a punishment is......
  • Commented on The sudden eruption of news
    I'd say you are seeing this from the wrong point of view. Rather than asking 'Why is May doing this?' ask yourselves why would she not call a General Election? As things stand now she has a legitimacy problem as...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    In theory I agree, "There isn't a fixed number of jobs", we are always seeing some jobs disappearing - I haven't met many cartwrights lately - and new ones appearing. But in practice I wonder if we can rely in...
  • Commented on Random excuses
    "does Donaldo Trumpolini remind one, perhaps, not of Bennie, but Wilhelm II?" After his air attack against Assad? More than ever. Here is the man that will see red and sign a blank check for Austria-Hungary as soon as he...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    Actually one of the most fascinating differences between horse armies and motor armies is, horse armies are better supplied the faster they move - up to a certain extent, of course - but find terribly difficult to stay put for...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    It was a really nice machine. Fast, mechanically very reliable, demanded little maintenance, well armed by 1939 standards (the Germans also retained the Skoda 37mm gun), and only half as heavy as a Pzkw III, saving many tons of steel....
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    This will get us deeper into alternative/fantastic history, but... well, the temptation is too strong. :) Bear in mind, tough, that seen through 1930s eyes the situation wasn't the one we see today. Just to mention some aspects, everyone 'knew'...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    I don't really think so. Broadly speaking I consider 'alternative' history mere fantasy (or worse, a way to sell very dangerous ideas) but if there is one exception this case is probably the one, since it involves only 14 months...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    To be nerdish Polybius is a contemporary source. He was born in 200 B.C., Hannibal died more or less 20 years later. They could even have met - highly unlikely, but not impossible - during Hannibal's exile. Your point stands,...
  • Commented on The light at the end of the tunnel (is not necessarily an oncoming train)
    My apologies if our kind host has some rule on... certain terms, but back when someone hearing PC would probably understand Presbyterian Church the royal navy included several HMS Cockchafer, the last of them a gunship of the aptly named...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    I didn't mean strictly the Decalogue, but the general problem with Bible terms. Even without a direct translation concepts like 'holy', for example, have passed from one language to other through 3,000 years or more. From Hebrew to Aramaic when...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    I'm very far from considering myself an expert, but I seem to remember the early part of the Bible wasn't written in Aramaic, because Aramaic only became the 'common language' of Asia during the Achaemenid period (Note: 'Asia' in this...
  • Commented on We get mail (contd.)
    ...from the Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward, perhaps?...
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